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THE ^ "^7 

SABBATH MADE FOE MAN: 

OE DESIGNED TO CONFER 

TEMPORAL AND SPIEITUilL BLESSINGS^ 



Upon the Human^/p^^pyi^^r^Hf"'^ 

WM. M. COBNELL, D. D<^^^.-,v^" -" : ■-■ 
Author of "PnrsiCAL and Mental IIygibne," etc* 

SECOND EDITION. 



AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

EEV. JAMES RIOHAEDS, D. D. 



BOSTON; J 
PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOYT, 

No. 9 CORNHILL. 

1873. 



^ 



nJ\S'> 






Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1873, 

By Wm. M. Cornell, 

in the 'Jmc^S^lht^ijiarian, at Washington. 




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
This Edition was Published in 1847. 

It has lon^ been the wish of many Pastors 
and churches, that a small volume, inculcating 
the importance of a due observance of the 
Holy Sabbath, and showing* the evils flowing 
from a profanation of this Sacred Day, with 
the blessings to be derived from a faithful ad- 
herence to its duties, might be published in a 
cheap form, and put into the hands of profess- 
ors of religion. 

It is true, there are many volumes and ser- 
mons already published on this subject, but 
none of them seem exactly adapted to the 
present wants of the churches and the com- 
munity. Whether the present will meet these 
wants or not, can be known only by the decis- 
ion of the public. The work has been under- 
taken at the suggestion, and by the advice of 
a number of pious friends ; and though I 
could wish it might have fallen into abler 
hands, yet, as no one else has undertaken it, 
it is now commended to the blessing of God . 
and the candor of a Christian public. 

Boston. JIarch, 1847. w,. m. c. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The ready sale of the former one shows the 
call for a Second Edition of this work.^ iiie 
present embodies all tliat was contained m the 
former, with the Introdivctio7i by Hej. Dr. 
Richards and an additional cliapter of' Mis- 
cellaneous Testimony in Favor of the Sab- 
bath." The present onslaught upon tbis 
Sacred Day, made by skeptics, infidels and the 
masses calls for a new and enlarged work, 
and by the advice of many whose judgment 
the author confides in, he sends forth this 
little book to the church and the community, 
bespeaking for it a careful perusal, w. m. c 

Boston, May, 1873. 



INTEODUCTION. 

THE DIYINE AUTHOEITY AND PEEPETUAIj 
OBLIGATION OP THE LOED's DAY. 

BY REV. JAMES EICHARDS, D. D. 

When Hogarth, who is so celebrated 
for his striking delineations of human 
life and manners, v/ished to give a por- 
traiture of a veteran criminal, he made 
him commence his career, as a boy lolling 
on the tomb-stone of the church-yard on 
the Lord's day. 

That profound and accurate observer 
of human character, knew of no more 
fertile source of crime — of no corrupt 
fountain which wells out a more copious 
stream of vice and moral pollution, in all 
its form and modification, than a dese- 
cration of the Sabbath. 

Our opportunities of observation in 
both Europe and America, confirm this 
estimate of the artist, in reference to the 
potency of the Sabbatical institution, in 
the formation of character. 

We are persuaded that it is the parent 
of a more numerous progeny of degraded 
habits and delinquencies, than any other 
single circumstance whatever. It is the 
want of a due impression of the Divine 

(v) 



VI INTEODUCTION. 

authority and perpetual obligation of the 
Lord's day which is one of the chief oc- 
casions of the luxury and profligacy of 
multitudes in the higher walks of society; 
and it is the same course which vitiates 
and defiles the manners and the moods of 
other and subordinate classes in the scale 
of social life. 

The malignant influence of Sabbath 
breaking upon the habits of the general 
conduct, is no where more strikingly ap- 
parent than among the crowded popula- 
tion of our large cities. 

It is a notorious and unquestionable 
fact that amidst the promiscuous resi- 
dents of a city, the men of incorrect 
morals and dissolute lives, as well as 
those chargeable with high crimes and 
misdemeanors, are . those, with scarcely 
an exception, who are strangers to* the 
pleasure of public worship and imao^ine 
themselves to be exempt from the obliga- 
tion and the necessity of a uniform, 
close and religious observance of the 
Christian Sabbath — Presuming that no 
one will call in question this statement, 
we may present another fact of most 
promising import— that a feeling of in- 
creasing interest in the sanctification of 
the first day of the week, is clearly 
awakened in all the branches of the 
Christian Church in our country. A 
spirit is moving through all the religious 



INTEODUCTION. 



denominations which is prophetic of 
great and desirable results- 

No better evidence is required of the 
truth of this remark, than the fact, that so 
many volumes great and small — together 
with essays and tracts without number, 
written the last few years have been pre- 
sented to the public, through the press, 
exhibiting the Divine authority and per- 
petual obligation of the Lord's day, and 
proving to the satisfaction of every can- 
did inquirer that the Sabbath of creation 
— the original institution in Paradise,has 
not like the rites and ceremonies of a 
purely ecclesiastical and political nation, 
been abrogated, — but continues more per- 
fect — a permanent and standing institu- 
tion and of perpetual obligation — the 
books and tracts to which we have re- 
fered have for their authors, distinguished 
clergymen and laymen connected with 
every prominent Christian denomination 
not excepting the Society of Friends, on 
both sides of the Atlantic. 

The subject to which the attention of 
the public is solicited in this pretension- 
less volume cannot be new, and in this 
nineteenth century of the Christian era, 
even novelty of illustration is scarcely to 
be expected. But were it easy to sur- 
mount the prejudices of those to whom 
novelty is the first attraction, obstacles 
stil more formidable must yet be encoun- 



Vlll INTEODUCTION. 

tered. There is a persuasion which very 
generally prevails, among some classes of 
men, and especially among those who 
have the least reason to adopt it, that 
everything which can be said • on the 
sanctification of the Sabbath is already 
familiar to them ; and that it is equally 
unprofitable and unpleasant to bestow 
their attention on subjects of which they 
have long had sufficient information- 
others not of these classes cordially con- 
sent to the observance of one day in 
seven as a day of rest from bodily fatigue 
and worldly enjoyment as an exceedingly 
wise and benevolent arrangement, and 
one fraught with great benefits to man- 
kind — at the same time denying that it is 
Divinely appointed and authorized as the 
revealed law of Christianity — but only 
the conventional law of Christians. 

These prejudices are unhappily sup- 
ported by the resistance given to the 
influence of religion by the passions and 
spirit of the world. He who is unwilling 
to subject himself to the obligation of 
Christianity is certainly ill prepared to 
receive satisfaction from truths, which 
contradict the habits of his life: and 
they, too, who derive their happiness from 
sources very remote from a cordial recog- 
nition of the Divine claims readily find 
reason for pronouncing certain statutes 
and observances, of local and temporary 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

obligation— obedience to which they have 
always found by experience to have been 
an ungrateful or an irksome task. 

But though these and many other diffi- 
culties exists there are considerations 
which must be admitted to have a coun 
terbalancing effect The subject discuss 
edis one of perpetual importance to man- 
kind and involves their most permanent 
individual and national interest, and 
though the truth is, and always must be 
the same, and supported substantially by 
the same arguments, — yet the laws of 
society — the manners of the world and 
the characters of men to w^hom the truth 
is to be applied are subject to perpetual 
variations. 

The same doctrines and duties are in- 
culcated in our pulpits to-day which were 
proclaimed in the age of the apostles, 
and ministers of the Gospel are not al- 
lowed to make any addition either to 
their substance or their authority, — yet 
it is of the last importance to direct 
them to the consciences of men in every 
age, and to combat the circumstances 
which rise in succession, to outmeet their 
influence, and to take advantage of the 
facts and events which occur in the pro- 
gress of human affairs by which they can 
be enforced diud. illicstrated- 

We know the author of this volume 
has so much of purity of intention as to 



X INTEODUCTION. 

be vastly more solicitous for its general 
usefulness than for the literary reputation 
and prosperity it may secure for him. 

We shall not attempt an analysis of 
the volume. Suffice it to say that he has 
evidently looked over the whole ground 
as a patriot and a Christian, and has 
instituted a thorough examination into 
the nature and claims of the Sabbath, 
and he has given us the result of his in- 
vestigation in perspicuous language and 
in simple and inartificial arrangement. 
He maintains the high moral obligation 
of the Sabbath. All the principal diffi- 
culties are met in a fair and candid man- 
ner. The blessings of a strict observance 
of the day are presented in an attractive 
form. The value of the Sabbath to 
young men is set forth in language most 
persuasive. Throughout the course of 
argumentation, earnest and affectionate 
appeals are intermingled, calculated to 
excite to the employment of practical 
measures for the reformation of individ- 
uals, communities, and nations. 

The attention of the Church and the 
world, is now throughout all Protestant 
Christendom called to this subject, and 
the republication of this little volume 
cannot but be considered very timely. 
The institution of the Sabbath must be 
better understood by our utilitarians in 
its economic bearings. *' The Sabbath 



INTEODUCTION. XI 

was made for man" — for man as man, 
and the Sabbath is to exist for his benefit 
and observance so long as man exists as 
a species. Every man is better for keep- 
ing it holy. It is an institution of 
mercy, *' bringing ^' as Coleridge has for- 
cibly expressed it " fifty-two Spring days 
every year to this toilsome world ; and 
may fully be regarded as a sweet remnant 
of Paradise, lightening the now inevita- 
ble burdens of life, and investing the 
regions of bliss that have been lost, with 
the still brighter glory that is to come." 

Chief among the varieties of the genus 
philanthropist which have become con- 
spicuous in our age and country — is that 
variety who made the pretext of bettering 
the condition of the masses would per- 
vert the day of worship into a day of 
amusement and send our people away 
frooi the altar — away from the cross — 
away from their Bibles and away from 
their Lord. 

Every anti-Sabbath movement tends to 
this result. When the day is sacrificed 
in this way, for the man, the day and the 
man are sacrificed together. You dese- 
crate morals and degrade men. 

If sound health ; a long and happy 
life ; social order ; purity ; morality ; 
peace and religion are worth maintaining 
and promoting on the earth, then an ex- 
press day of Sabbatical rest and worship 



XU INTEODUCTION. 

must be faithfully observed. In this 
view of the subject, every city, every 
town, every village and hamlet, every 
church, every family, every man, woman 
and child in this Republic has a mighty 
interest in the question, '' Shall we keep 
the Sabbath and reverence the Sanctu- 
ary? " The author of this little volume, 
assumes that we are a Christian people 
and bound by the revealed will of God. 
He approaches the subject with a deep 
impression of the magnitude of the in- 
terest at stake, and of the disastrous 
results which must follow any letting 
down of the strictness of the enactments 
on our statute-books, relative to the sanc- 
tity of the Sabbath, as a day sanctioned 
by God himself in its continuance by 
signs of complacency the most decisive 
that Omnipotence could bestow. 

It is not- of course pretended that the 
author has illustrated every topic the 
subject might justly allow — but enough 
will be found here to exhibit the stand- 
ard for the regulation of our passions 
and our lives. 

The importance of constantly appeal- 
ing to that standard and rigidly abiding 
by it, is at this hour urgent and imperious 
from the habits of infraction by which 
the Divine institution is insulted and its 
sacred authority and perpetual obligation 
denied. 



THE SABBATH. 



CHAPTER I. 



Divine institution of the Sabbath. — Its 

continuance till the Promulgation of 

the Moral Laiu, 

When God had finished the work of 
creation, we are infornred, that " on the 
seventh day he rested from all his work 
which he had made. And God blessed 
the seventh day and sanctified it; be- 
cause that in it he had rested from all 
his work which God created and made." 

In these words of holy writ, we have 
the institution of the Sabbath, with the 
reason why God blessed and sanctified it. 
It was to commemorate the work of 
creation, in which the divine glory is 
wonderfully displayed. 

But though it was the seventh day 
from the commencement of the work 
of creation, yet it was only the first day 



14 THE SABBATH 

of the week, as Adam would count time ; 
as it was the first whole day of his life. 

The Sabbath, then, commenced in 
paradise. It was made for holy beings ; 
and if men were entirely holy on earth, 
they would still need a Sabbath as much 
as our primitive parents did in Eden. It 
follows, immediately, in chronological 
order, God's six days' labor in creating 
the heavens and the earth. The resting . 
on, and sanctifying the seventh day, suc- 
ceeded as directly the work of the sixth, 
as that did the work of the fifth day. 
The Sabbath as much began on the 
seventh day, as the sun and moon began 
to shine oil the day in which they were 
created. 

This account contains the institution 
of a Sabbath. The day was blessed and 
sanctified for man. The uniform im- 
port of the term ^' sanctified," as em- 
ployed in the Old Testament, in relation 
to inanimate things, was, that those 
things should be consecrated to human 
and divine duties. Thus man never was 
without a Sabbath. Adam, immediately 
after his creation, had a Sabbath in par- 
adise. 



MADE FOR MAN. 15 

The Sabbath continued in force till the 
giving of the moral law. This statement 
has been denied. It has been said: 
** There are no vestiges, nor a single al- 
lusion, to a sabbatical rest till the promul- 
gation of the Mosaic law." 

Now, it is readily admitted that we no 
where find it expressly asserted that the 
patriarchs observed a weekly Sabbath. 
But what does this prove? Does it 
prove, because the Bible is silent for a 
considerable space of time about a com- 
mand which God has once expressly 
given, or an ordinance which he has 
once instituted, that that command was 
not binding, or not obeyed during that 
time, or that ordinance not attended to ? 
Nothing is said about sacrifices from the 
time of Cain and Abel till the deluge, a 
period of fifteen hundred years. But 
does this prove that no sacrifices were of- 
fered during that period ? Certainly not. 
Nothing is said aoout circumcision from 
the death of Moses till the days of Jere- 
miah. But does this prove that circum- 
cision was not performed during that 
•period? Certainly not. The mere si- 



16 THE SABBATH 

lence of the Bible for any particular 
time, respecting a command or an ordi- 
nance, is no proof that that command 
was wholly disregarded, or that ordi- 
nance done away, dming such a pe- 
riod. There is no special mention of 
the Sabbath in several of the sacred 
books which were written after the pro- 
mulgation of the law; yet, all admit, 
that after the law from Sinai was given, 
the Sabbath was in use. Why, then, 
after the Sabbath was instituted in the 
most solemn and resplendent manner in 
paradise, may it not reasonably be in- 
ferred that it continued in use till the 
time of Moses, even thougli there be no 
express statement respecting it ? Cer- 
tainly no good reasons can be assigned. 
And mere silence disproves notbing. 

But the statement that there are no 
vestiges of a Sabbath from the days of 
Adam till those of Moses, is not true, 
for, taken in conjunction with the origi- 
nal institution, there are, all along, 
traces of such a day. If not, why are 
Cain and Abel said to bring their offer- 
ings, "in process of time," or, as it is 



MADE FOR MAN. 17 

rendered in the margin, ** at the end of 
the days " ? Does not this intimate that 
there was a Sabbath ? No division of 
days had been previously mentioned, 
save that of the week. When, then, it 
is said sacrifices are offered *' at the end 
of the days/' and when there must have 
been a priest and an altar, is there not an 
allusion to a Sabbath ? 

If there were no Sabbath, why, in the 
days of Noah, do we find the same 
method of computing time in use that 
was instituted in paradise ; to wit, that 
of reckoning by weeks ? And is there 
no vestige of a Sabbath here? The 
Lord said unto Noah, *' Yet seven days 
and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.'" 
And again, '' It came to pass after seven 
days, that the waters of the flood were 
upon the earth." Afterwards, when the 
flood was decreasing, it is said, Noah 
sent out a dove, and after the dove re- 
turned, he stayed '*yet other seven 
days;" and again, '* he stayed yet other 
seven days," and sent out the dove the 
third time. Will any one say these were 
** no vestiojes '* of a Sabbath ? 



18 THE SABBATH 

r 

Why, then, was the method of comput- 
ing time by weeks, the same that was in- 
stituted in paradise, so familiar ? Was 
there not something signal in the return 
of every seventh day ? Does it not in- 
dicate a Sabbath ? 

Come we forward to the days of Abra- 
ham, we still find vestiges of a Sabbath. 
If not, why did the Lord say, ** I know 
Abraham, that he will command his 
children, and his household after him, to 
keep the way of the Lord, to do justice 
and judgment." Was this said when 
God had prescribed no particular way or 
time in which justice and judgment 
should be done? And what other time 
had he prescribed, save the Sabbath? It 
is added, ^^ Abraham obeyed his voice, 
and kept his charge, his command- 
ments, his statutes and his laws.'' 

These are terms so various, that it 
would seem they must include not only 
sacrifices and circumcision, but also the 
recognition of the Sabbath. 

In the days of Jacob, also, we have 
mention of *' the house of God and the 
gate of heaven." Expressions these. 



MADE FOR MAN. 19 

wliich one would hardly suppose would 
occur J unless there were a Sabbath. It 
is generally conceded that Job lived be- 
fore the days of Moses, and he repeatedly 
speaks of a '^ day when the sons of God 
assembled to present themselves before 
the Lord." Who can believe that this 
day was not the Sabbath? 

But there are yet clearer vestiges of a 
Sabbath previous to the promulgation of 
the law, than any we have yet adduced. 
After two hundred years' captivity in 
Egypt, when religious knowledge was 
no doubtj reduced very low, we still 
find vestiges of a Sabbath. Moses speaks, 
respecting the gathering of manna, as 
though the Sabbath were well known. 
His expression is as follows : — " It shall 
come to pass that on the sixth day, they 
shall prepare that which they bring in, 
and it shall be twice as much as they 
gather daily." True, nothing is here said 
of a Sabbath, but why must they gather 
twice as much on the sixth day, unless 
the seventh was a Sabbath ? The direc- 
tion seems to have been perfectly under- 
stood. And soon, the whole subject ia 



20 THE SABBATH 

put beyond a doubt, and the Sabbath h 
expressly named and assigned as a 
reason why they should gather twice as 
much on the sixth day. When they 
left of the manna on other da3^s save of 
the sixth, it was found infested with 
worms ; but on the sixth day, when kept 
till the seventh, no worm was found in 
it. The rulers of the congregation came 
and told Moses, and he said unto them, 
'' This is it which the Lord hath said. 
To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sab- 
bath unto the Lord : bake that which ye 
will bake to-day, and seethe that which 
ye will seethe ; and that which remaineth 
over, lay up for you, to be kept until 
the morning." Here, then, more tlian 
two thousand years after the fall, nine 
hundred after the deluge, four hundred 
after the calling of Abraham, and after 
two centuries of Egyptian bondage (and 
yet before the giving of the law), we 
find a Sabbath positively recognized. Is 
not the fact, then, established beyond all 
doubt, that the Sabbath was not only 
instituted in paradise, but was in force 
from that time until the law was pro- 



MADE FOR MAN. 21 

mulgated from Sinai? We think no man 
can doubt it. 

The wisdom and goodness of God may 
be seen in this early institution of the 
Sabbath. There was peculiar wisdom 
in it. There was exhibited the wonder- 
ful goodness of God in it. Man needs a 
Sabbath. It is certain he cannot be 
happy, and it is doubtful whether he can 
exist, in his present state, without a Sab- 
bath. The experiment has been tried. 
That infidel nation, France, at the period 
styled the French revolution, burnt the 
Bible and obliterated the Sabbath. But 
they found they could not attend to the 
common avocations of life. They needed 
a day of relaxation from labor and the 
constant routine of dissipation. They 
would not have a seventh day's rest, be- 
cause it had been appointed by God and 
sanctioned by Christianity, which they 
wished to annihilate. But they w^ould 
have a tenth day's relaxation, and, con- 
sequently, appointed what they called a 
decade, one day in ten. Hence, we see 
the wisdom and goodness of God in ap- 
pointing a Sabbath for man, and the con- 



22 THE SABBATH 

summate folly of men when they attempt 
to refine upon, or annul any of the divine 
institutions. 

I love to think of our common father 
and mother, when no human flesh ex- 
isted but they, keeping a Sabbath. How 
holy ! How blessed ! How happy ! The 
great Creator had appointed it in infinte 
wisdom and goodness, and there were 
two human souls to keep it. He had ap- 
pointed it as a day of rest for man and 
beast, in commemoration of his resting 
from the work of creation. 

I love to think of Enoch and Noah, 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, reckoning 
time by weeks, as we do now, and keep- 
ing holy time, and thas " walking with 
God." 

But why did God require but one day 
out of the seven for himself? '* Even so, 
Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight.'' If those holy men are permitted 
to behold terrestial scenes, if they wit- 
ness affairs of earth, with what joy must 
they view the solemn assembly of God's 
people on this holy day? If *' the morn- 
ing stars sang together, and all the sons 



MADE FOR MAN. 23 

of God shouted for joy," when this earth 
and these heavens were finished, and. 
man was made, how must our holy 
parents have felt when God informed 
them of this sacred day, of its object — 
its design — its blessings ? Whose day is 
it ? *' The Lord blessed the seventh day 
and sanctified it." What would Adam 
have said, if he had been asked the ques- 
tion, Whose day is it ? 

Will you spend the Sabbath as though 
it were your own? Will you devote it 
to pleasure — to your worldly business? 
Will you plan and work, and amuse 
yourself, as at other times? Is there 
any meaning in the declaration, *^ The 
Lord sanctified the Sabbath day ?" The 
Sabbath is not your day. You have no 
right to use it for your purposes, unless 
your purposes correspond with the pur- 
pose which God had in view when he 
sanctified it. 

Go back to man's creation, and you 
find a Sabbath — not made by man, but 
appointed by God. Enter Eden's bliss- 
ful bowers, and you find a Sabbath to 
contribute to man's felicity. See the 



24 THE SABBATH 

offspring of these parents, Cain and 
Abel ; they come to present an offering 
to the Lord; but they offer it "at the 
end ot the days." What days, but at 
the close of the week, or the beginning 
of holy time? 
Jacob, that wonderful man, knew '^ the 
house of God," and knew it on the Sab- 
bath. Israel in the wilderness ^' ate 
angels' bread, rained on them from 
heaven," but no bread rained down on 
the Sabbath ; and shall we raise it from 
the earth on this consecrated day ? 

But here comes a man and tells us, 
one day is as good as another — all days 
are alike — every day should be a good 
day, and we should live well every day. 
And one house is as good as another — 
all houses should be holy, and temples 
of God. 

N'ow, as '* Satan is sometimes trans- 
formed into an angel of light, so are his 
ministers ;" and as he mixes trutli with 
falsehood, so do those who make the plea 
just stated. 

Men should live all days in a spiritual 
frame of mind, but he who says all days 



MADE FOR MAN. 25 

are alike, and one as sacred as the other, 
libels his Maker, for He blessed and 
sanctified the seventh day, and com- 
manded man to keep it holy. I would 
not contend with such men, but let them 
settle this controversy with their Maker. 
They say all days are alike. He sancti- 
fied the Sabbath day. They and He are 
at variance, and He will one day settle 
the controversy 

Nor, do we believe it to be a breach of 
charity to say that men who take this 
ground, take it for the purpose of having 
no day kept sacred. It is taken osten- 
sibly that all days should be kept sa- 
cred, but really, that no day should be 
thus kept, verifying the old proverb, 
that*' what is everybody's business, is 
nobody's," and when all days are alike, 
they will be all unholy — all kept alike in 
indolence, pleasure, or worldliness. 

And the same may be said respecting 
all houses. Those who contend for hav- 
ing all houses holy, so far as they have 
influence, will let none be so. They 
would secularize every house, and pro- 
fane every day. Upon them rests a fear- 



26 THE SABBATH 

ful responsibility. Let us remember that 
God sanctified the Sabbath day, and 
keep it holy ; and that his sanctuary is 
the house of God. The Majesty of 
heaven says, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, 
and reverence my sanctuary.'^ And he 
who says all days are alike, and all places 
equally sacred, must tear from the Bible 
all such passages, before he can succeed 
in his destructive influence. But this is 
no difficult thing; for, with such men, 
the Bible is worth no more than an old 
almanac, or a blank album. They write 
in it what they please. 



MADE FOR MAN. 27 



CHAPTER II. 

The Sabbath Under Ihe Law. 

The promulgation of the law from 
Mount Sinai was an awful and glorious 
event. The people were warned of the 
august scene that was before them, and 
commanded to prepare for the awful 
solemnities. *' In the morning, there 
were thunderings, and lightnings, and a 
thick cloud upon the Mount. And the 
voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so 
that all the people that were in the camp 
trembled. They went out of the camp 
and stood at the nether part oi the 
Mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether 
on a smoke," etc. 

It was the most sublime spectacle that 
mortals ever saw. And the people said 
unto Moses, **Speak thou with us, and 
we will hear, but let not God speak with 
us, lest we die." Since then, God has 



28 THE SABBATH 

done as they requested, and spoken to 
the people by men ; and it should ever 
be remembered, that it was at the special 
request of those who once heard God, 
that he has adopted this course. 

That the Sabbath existed in fulb force 
under the Mosaic economy, is evident 
from the fourth command of the Deca- 
logue. It should be remembered by all, 
that the Decalogue contains, not the 
ceremonial, but the moral law. In this 
law God says J ** Remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy. Six dsijs shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work : but the 
seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God : in it thou shalt not do any work, 
thou J nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor 
thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within 
thy gates : for in six days the Lord made 
heaven and earth, the sea and all that in 
them is, and rested the seventh day ; 
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day, and hallowed it.'' 

In addition to what has been advanced 
in the preceding chapter, it may here be 
added, that the manner in which this 



MADE FOR MAN. 29 

command ]s worded shows that God was 
not instituting a new ordinance, but 
simply requiring such a remembrance 
of a former institution as should lead to 
obedience. It does not commence like 
the rest of the commandments, by Je- 
hovah's saying, ** Thou shalt," etc., but 
it commences with *' Remember," a 
term implying an ordinance, or duty, ot 
which they had previous knov/ledge. 
This is an additional proof that the Jews 
had a Sabbath previous to the promul- 
gation of the moral law. But, because 
it is an argument drawn from the man- 
ner of the law's being given, it seemed 
to me more proper that it should have a 
place in this, than in the previous chap- 
ter. 

As the manner in which this command 
is given shows that the Sabbath was not 
then instituted for the first time, so the 
fact that the Sabbath is contained in the . 
moral law is the strongest possible proof 
of its perpetual obligation: '*for, till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
title shall not pass from the law, till all 
be fulfil ]ed/' The fourth commandment 



30 THE SABBATH 

is as binding as any of the others. If 
this may be displaced from the Deca- 
logue, so may the others. The duty of 
keeping the Sabbath holy is as positive 
as to have no more gods than one, or to 
obey any of the other commandments. 
It v^ould seem, then, that no other argu- 
ment need be adduced to show the obli- 
gation of keeping the Sabbath under the 
law, save its insertion among the other 
commands of the Decalogue. 

ISTor can it be said to be one of the 
ceremonial enactments of Moses, for 
this command, and indeed the whole of 
the moral law, was promulgated before 
any of those ceremonies were enacted. 
Even when the ceremonial law was in 
fall torce, the Sabbath appeared dis- 
tinctly above that law. The ceremonial 
observances of any one command of the 
Decalogue, took away none of the moral 
character of such command. The sin of 
violating every command of the moral 
law remained the same, after all the 
ceremonial ritual was annexed to it. In 
the midst of the publication of the Jew- 
ish ceremonies, the Sabbath appears dis- 



MADE FOR MAN. 31 

tinct. In the twenty-third chapter of 
Exodus, in the midst of the ceremonial 
enactments, the Sabbath seems to stand 
high above them all, and it is said, *'Six 
days shalt thou do thy work, and on 
the seventh thou shalt rest."" Again, 
after the directions for the tabernacle 
with its services and sacrifices, God says, 
in the thirty-first chapter, *^ Yerily, my 
Sabbath ye shall keep ; for it is a sign 
between me and you, throughout your 
generations, that ye may know that. I 
am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye 
shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it 
is hol}^ unto you ; every one that defile th 
it shall surely be put to death, for who- 
soever doeth any work therein, that soul 
shall be cut off from among his people. 
Six days may work be done : but in 
the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy 
to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work 
in the Sabbath day, he shall be surely 
put to death. Wherefore the children 
of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to ob- 
serve the Sabbath throughout their gen- 
erations, for a per^jetual covenant. It is 
a sisrn between me and the children of 



32 THE SABBATH 

Israel forever, for in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, and on the 
seventh he rested, and was refreshed." 
Could language enforce the observance 
of the Sabbath more strikingly than the 
above? Which of the ceremonial ob- 
servances stands pre-eminent like the 
Sabbath? JSTot one. 

In truth, the Sabbath not only stands 
pre-eminent above all the ceremonial 
washings and purifications, but seems 
also to hold a more conspicuous place 
than any other command of the Deca- 
logue : in proof of this, look at the re- 
capitulation of the law by Moses just 
before his decease. Here, he recites all 
the other commands very similarly to 
what they were when first delivered at 
Sinai. The addition or variation is very 
small. But the command containing the 
Sabbath is dwelt upon, extended and 
enforced by many powerful motives to 
obedience. It seems as though Moses, 
the Legislator, the great Prophet of God, 
when about to leave the nation for 
which he had done so much, would say 
to them : The Sabbath is all important ; 



MADE FOR MAIS'. 33 

the fourth commandment is more bind- 
ing upon you, if possible, than any of 
the others. Hence he amplifies it and 
enforces it again and again. 

In the latter days of the Jewish Church 
the prophets caused the Sabbath to stand 
out in bold relief. David, the sweet 
psalmist of Israel, often speaks of his 
delight in the temple of the Lord and 
in the services of the holy Sabbath. As 
proof, we need only refer to the thirty- 
fcseventh and ninety-second of his sacred 
songs. 

Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, says, 
^* Blessed is the man that doeth this, and 
the son of man that layeth hold on it ; 
that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting 
it, and keepeth his hand from doing 
any evil." Here he pronounces a bless- 
ing upon him that keepeth the Sabbath. 
In the context, God says. He will give 
to those eunuchs who keep his Sabbath, 
a name in his house, and within his 
walls, better than of sons or daughters. 
He will give them an everlasting name, 
that shall not be cut off. In another 
place, the prophet speaks of the peace 



34 THE SABBATH 

and satisfaction, the blessing of the Lord, 
which should follow those who rever- 
enced the Sabbath. " It thou turn away 
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing 
thy pleasure on my holy day, and call 
the Sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, 
honorable, and shalt honor him, not do- 
ing thine own ways, nor finding thine 
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own 
words then shalt thou delight thy sell in 
the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride 
upon the high places of the earth, and 
feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy 
father." 

Let us now turn to some of the threat- 
enings denounced upon those who pro- 
fane the Sabbath. The prophet Jere- 
miah says, " Thus saith the Lord, take 
heed to yourselves, and bear no burden 
on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by 
the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry 
forth a burden out of your houses on 
the Sabbath day ; neither do ye any work : 
but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I com- 
manded your fathers. But they obeyed 
not, neither inclined their ear, but made 
their neck stiff that they might not hear, 



MADE FOR MAN. 35 

nor receive instruction. But if ye will 
not hearken unto me, then will I kindle 
a fire in the gates thei eof, and it shall 
devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and 
it shall not be quenched." Here, for 
the single sin of violating the Sabbath, 
Jerusalem is threatened with destruc- 
tion. 

The prophet Amos refers to the impa- 
tience with which the Israelites, who, in 
his day, had become shockingly degen- 
erated, kept holy time, in the following 
language. ** Hear this, O ye that swal- 
low up the needy, even to make the poor 
of the land to fail, sa^ang, when will 
the new moon be gone that we may sell 
corn, and the Sabbath that we may set 
forth wheat."" 

Ezekiel, who lived still later, repre- 
sents the peculiar aggravation of the 
people's sin to consist in their violating 
the Sabbath. '^ Moreover," says he, I 
gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign 
between me and them, that they might 
know that I am the Lord that sanctify 
them. But the house of Israel rebelled 
against me ; my Sabbaths they polluted ; 



36 THE SABBATH 

then I said, I will pour out my fury 
upon them in the wilderness to consume 
them." The charge, here brought against 
Israel, is polluting the Sabbath, and this 
is repeated again and again by this 
prophet. 

j^ehemiah also labored to reform the 
Jews. But of what? Principally of their 
violations of the Sabbath. *• In those 
days, says he, '* saw I in Judah, some 
treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, 
and bringing in sheaves, and lading 
asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, 
and all manner of burdens, which they 
brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath 
day ; and I testified against them in the 
day wherein they sold victuals. There 
dwelt men of Tyre also therein, who 
brought fish and all manner of ware, 
and sold on the Sabbath unto the chil- 
dren of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then 
I contended with the nobles of Judah 
and said unto them, What evil thing is 
this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath 
day? Did not your fathers thus, and 
did not our God bring all this evil upon 
us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring 



MADE FOR MAN. 37 

more wrath upon Israel by profaning the 
Sabbath. And it came to pass that when 
the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark 
before Sabbath, I commanded that the 
gates should be shut, and charged that 
they should not be opened till after the 
Sabbath ; and some of my servants set 
I at the gates, that there should no bur- 
den be brought in on the Sabbath day. 
And I commanded the Levites that they 
should cleanse themselves, and that they 
should come and keep the gates to sanc- 
tify the Sabbath day." 

Malachi, who lived a few years later, 
represents the whole Jewish nation as 
having *^ robbed God in tithes and offer- 
ings." No one, he says, would shut 
the temple doors for nought. They said, 
**The table of the Lord is contemptible. 
Behold, what a weariness it is." He 
represents the judgments of God as about 
to be poured out upon them for their 
contempt of his ordinances. 

Here we close up the prophets, and 
ask. Was not the Sabbath in full force 
under the Mosaic economy? Did it not 
stand out in bold relief? Pid not the 



38 THE SABBATH 

people's violation of this holy day cause 
the burden of instruction, reproof and 
admonition of the prophets ? Behold, 
then, the Sabbath in full force under the 
law. 



MADE FOR MAN. 39 



Chapter III. 

The Sabbath Changed from the Seventh 

to the First Bay of the Week. 

We have now followed the Sabbath 
down from the creation, — from Paradise 
to the closing up of the Old Dispensation. 
The later, and lesser prophets, as they 
are sometimes called, dwelt much upon 
the sacredness of the day, and of its be- 
ing profaned by the Jews. 

From Malachi, who accused the Israel- 
ites of ** robbing God in tithes and offer- 
ings," to the coming of John the Baptist, 
as the promised Elias, and forerunner 
of the Messiah, a dark cloud of five hun- 
dred years intervened, without a prophet, 
or a vision from the Almighty. So that, 
in bringing down the Sabbath through 
the prophets of the Old Testament, we 
have really come down to the time of 
the New, or have gone over all the pe- 



40 THE SABBATH 

riod of the two thousand years of the 
world under the Law. Thus, you have 
set before you a Sabbath of two thousand 
years under the patriarchs, and two thou- 
sand under the kings and prophets, or 
the law. 

Hence, I shall not attempt to show any 
positive command, or re-enactment for 
the change of the day of rest. No such 
command was needed, and God never 
does anything unless it be necessary. 
That no such command was necessary, 
is evident from the following considera- 
tions: The Sabbath was first instituted tc 
commemorate God's resting after the 
work of creation. No doubt, this use 
of the seventh day, from the commence- 
ment of creation, remained the time of 
the patiiarchal Sabbath. Though the 
Sabbath continued (as was shown in a 
former chapter) till the promulgation of 
the law from Mount Sinai, yet it is prob- 
able that, in the four hundred years' bon- 
dage in Egypt, the exact reckoning of 
weeks was lost ; for, at the giving of the 
law, we find another reason assigned for 
their keeping the Sabbath than the Lord's 



MADE FOR MAN. ^^ 

resting after the work of creation. The 
ten commandments are prefaced with the 
reason for the Israelites' obedience to 
them: '' I am the Lord thy God, which 
have brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage." 
But of these commandments, the fourth 
refers to the Sabbath. JSTow, there is 
little probability that the day in which 
the Israelites went out of Egypt was the 
same day of the week as that on which 
the Lord rested from his work of creat-^ 
ing. Forty years after the giving of 
the law at Sinai, we find it recapitu- 
lated, and a reason assigned by God 
himself why they should keep the Sab- 
bath. ** And remember that thou wast 
a servant in Egypt, and that the Lord 
thy God brought thee out thence by a 
mighty hand, and by a stretched-out 
arm. Therefore, the Lord thy God com- 
manded thee to keep the Sabbath day.^ 
Nothing is here said of creation, as a 
reason why they should keep the Sab- 
bath. They are expressly commanded 
to keep it to commemorate their deliver- 
ance from Egyptian bondage. Hence, it 



4:2 THE SABBATH 

appears that the day of the week was 
not essential, provided, one-seventh part 
of time was kept. 

But It may be said, that Moses else- 
where speaks of their laboring six days 
and resting on the seventh, and ol their 
gathering manna in six days and finding 
none on the Sabbath ; and if this be so, 
was not the Sabbath which they kept the 
seventh day ? It was unquestionably the 
seventh from the time when they began 
to reckon, but there is no evidence that 
they began to reckon from the same day 
that was reckoned from, in creation ; and 
if they did not reckon from the same day, 
of course, their seventh would not come 
on the same day of the week as it did in 
paradise. But it was the seventh to 
them, because it followed six working 
days. The spirit of the command re- 
^ quired one-seventh part of time, butsaj^s 
not a word about which day of the week 
should be kept as holy time. The Jews 
could never have known, from the fourth 
commandment, on which day of the 
week their first Sabbath was to be kept. 
All they could do was to count six days 



MADE FOR MAN. 43 

for labor, and keep the seventh. The di- 
vine Lawgiver, no doubt, designed this 
by the v^ording of the fourth command- 
ment. It says nothing about which day 
of the week should be kept, only, that 
the Sabbath should be observed after six 
working days. In the sense of this com- 
mand, our Sabbath is as much the sev- 
enth day as the Jewish was. We keep 
it alter six days' labor, as much as they 
did. It is the seventh, counting from our 
first working day, as much as theirs was, 
reckoning from their first working day. 
The requirement, simple and in whole, 
by this command, is, that one day in 
seven should be kept as holy time. 

But if our Sabbath, in this respect, is 
as much the seventh day as the Jewish 
was, why is it called in Scripture the 
first ? It was the first, counting from the 
Jewish Sabbath, as Christ and his apos- 
tles reckoned, and we from them ; and 
is the seventh, only, as it followed six 
days' labor. 

Now, if God only required one-seventh 
part of time, and said nothing respecting 
which day of the week should be kept as 



44 THE SABBATH 

holy time, certainly, no new command 
could be necessary, as to which day of 
the week should be kept as holy time in 
the gospel. 

This seems to be the amount of all our 
inquiries relative to what day of the 
week shall be kept as holy time: the 
Sabbath followed the greatest event in 
each dispensation — under the Patri- 
archal, the creation — under the Mosa- 
ical, the deliverance from Egypt — under 
the Christian, the redemptian which there 
is in Christ Jesus, who completed that 
great work by his resurrection. The 
resurrection of Christ is the key-stone 
which binds the whole plan of redemp- 
tion together. 

Christ was Lord of the Sabbath. Highly 
as that appointment is exalted, ancient 
and dignified as it is, universal as is its 
extent, and* durable and permanent as is 
to be its continuance, the Son of man 
was Lord of it. He claimed it as his own. 
He had a right to transfer it. When once 
his disciples were accused of breaking 
the Sabbath, he said: **I say unto you 
that in this place is one greatei than the 



MADE FOR MAN. 45 

temple," — meaning to say of himself, T 
am greater than the temple, and, conse- 
quently, am authorized to regulate its 
worship, and to determine the day on 
which my people shall assemble them- 
selves together. These suggestions vir- 
tually imply that he meant to change the 
Sabbath. The language which he used, 
when he commissioned his disciples to 
go into all the world and preach the gos- 
pel, shows that he had power to change 
the Sabbath. *' All power is given unto 
me, in heaven and on earth. Go ye 
therefore, unto all nations, teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I com- 
mand you." 

The change of the day seems to have 
been introduced and sanctioned by the 
authority and example of Christ himself. 
It was the first day of the week upon 
which he had predicted his ovvrn resur- 
rection, and, notwithstandmg the precau- 
tion taken by the chief priests and rulers, 
he arose early on that predicted morn- 
ing. 

The stone, the seal, the guard, were 
all in vain. He arose triumphant on that 



46 THE SABBATH 

morn. Four times, before the close of 
that day, he maDifested himself to his 
disciples. Thus did he consecrate the 
first Christian Sabbath by his own pres- 
ence. The evangelists seem to dwell 
with pleasure on the theme that Christ 
arose on the first day of the week. 
Matthew tells us that on the very dawn 
of the first day of the week, it was an- 
nounced to the two Marys that Christ 
was risen. Mark inlorms us that very 
early in the morning of that same day, 
that glorious event transpired. John 
says that, on the first day of the week 
Cometh Mary, when it was yet dark, unto 
the sepulchre, and found that the Saviour 
was risen. He again appeared to three 
women the same day. It was on the 
same day, also, that he journeyed with 
the two disciples to the village of Em- 
maus, and was known of them in the 
** breaking of bread." It was on the 
same day, at even, that he appeared to 
the disciples, when they were assembled, 
the doors being shut, for fear of the 
Jews." Then were the disciples glad- 
when they saw the Lord. Their joy in 



MADE FOR MAN. 47 

the resurrection of their Master com- 
menced on the first Lord's day. But, 
after six working days, the day of rest 
again returned^ and was honored again 
with the presence of Christ among his 
disciples. The Evangelist says : *' After 
eight days, again the disciples were with- 
in, and Thomas with them ; then canie 
Jesus, the doors bemg shut, and stood 
in the midst." As the Jews included the 
portion of the time from which, and to 
which they reckoned, ** after eight days " 
would be after six days, according to 
our manner of reckoning. Was not 
Paley coiTCct, when he said : *' This sec- 
ond meeting had all the appearance of 
an appointment " ? 

While their Lord was buried, the dis- 
ciples were but ill prepared to keep the 
Sabbath. It was the day when the bride- 
groom was taken away from them, and 
when Ihey were especially called to 
mourn. But when the Lord arose, on 
the first day of the week, then were they 
glad, and then they were prepared to 
keep the Sabbath. The first day of the 
week was consecrated as the Christian 



48 THE SABBATH 

Sabbath, by the seeing of the Saviour, 
and by his directing }iis disciples in con- 
vocation on that day. Ciirist told his 
disciples on that day, that all that was 
written in the Scripture concerning him 
must be fulfilled. Now, if we turn to 
the 118th Psalm, we read: *^The stone 
which the builders rejected, is become 
the headstone of the corner. This is the 
Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our 
eyes." In the New Testament, this stone 
is six times applied to Christ. Was he 
not rejected of the builders when he was 
put to death ? And was he not made the 
headstone of the corner, when from the 
grave he rose triumphantly ? But the 
Psalmist proceeds: ^'This is the day 
which the Lord has made ; we will re- 
joice and be glad in it." Here, certainly, 
it is intimated that the Christian day of 
joy should be that on which the Messiah 
arose, or became the headstone of the 
corner. 

And what day seems so worthy to be 
kept as that on which he completed the 
great work of redemption ? And , should 
we not expect the Sabbath to be changed. 



MADE FOR MAN. 49 

when so thorough a revolution took 
place in the state of the Church ? The 
priesthood being changed from the house 
of Aaron to that of the Messiah, there 
was, of necessity, a change of the law. 
The gospel dispensation was set up, 
called frequently in the New Testament 
*' the kingdom of heaven," and *'the 
world to come ;^' and how completely 
did everything undergo a revolution I 
A new Mediator, new covenant, new 
promises, new high priest, and new way 
of holy access to God. I mean, these 
thmgs were new, in that they were more 
fully manifested, though they had really 
existed Irom the days of Adam. Why, 
then, should there not be a new object in 
the computation of the weekly Sabbath, 
though it had existed from the beginning ? 
It seems there was, — the glorious and 
triumphant resurrection of Jesus from 
the sepulchre of Joseph ; and he began 
to consecrate this day by his own personal 
appearance among, his disciples. 

Another evidence of his consecrating 
the day, we have in his sending down 
his Holy Spirit upon it. The day of 



50 THE SABBATH 

Pentecost, on which the promised de- 
scent of the Spirit took place, was on 
the first day of the week. The disciples 
were assembled together with one ac- 
cord, in one place, when suddenly there 
came a sound from heaven as of a rush- 
ing, mighty wind, and they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost. Thus the predicted 
descent of the Spirit confirms the newly- 
instituted season. 

ThQ preaching and conduct of the dis- 
ciples after they had received the Spirit, 
is evidence ot the change of the day. 
We have their testimony for sixty years 
recorded in the New Testament, and in- 
troduced in such an incidental manner, 
as shows most clearly that the change of 
the Jewish to the Christian Sabbath was 
adopted and well known in the churches, 

Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, 
the beloved physician, Luke, writes as 
follows : '' We came to Troas, where we 
abode seven days. And upon the first 
day of the week, when the disciples 
came together to break bread, Paul 
preached unto them, ready to depart on 
the morrow.'' This meeting was at a 



MADE FOR MAN. 51 

distance from Jerusalem. It was a 
meeting of the wliole Chmxh. It was 
not called for the special purpose that 
Paul might preach, for he '' waited for it, 
ready to depart," that it might be on the 
day when they generally assembled. 
Here, certainly, is evidence that the first 
day of the week was then kept as a Sab- 
bath, much as it is at present, — that is, 
by the people assembling and the gospel 
being preached. Writing to the Corin- 
thians, the Apostle Paul incidentially 
mentions the first day of the week in 
such a manner as shows that it was then 
consecrated to religious purposes. ^^Now, 
concerning the collection for the saints, 
as I have given orders to the Churches 
of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the 
first day of the week let every one of you 
lay by him, in store, as God hath pros- 
pered him, that there be no gatherings 
when I do come." Does it not appear, 
from the apostle's giving such a charge 
to the Churches, that they should attend 
to a particular duty on the first day of 
the week, that the time of their assem- 
bling was well known to be on that day ? 



62 THE SABBATH 

The first day of the week, then, was kept 
as holy time before the epistles of Paul 
were written. 

But, furthermore, the beloved disciple, 
John, at the close of the first century, 
and thirty years after the above passage 
was written by the AjDostle Paul, says: 
" I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day^ 
Had not the Lord^s day been well known, 
would he have spoken of it in so familiar 
a manner ? By the Lord's day was un- 
questionably meant the first day of the 
week, for we have no evidence of any 
distinction of days which could entitle 
any one to that appellation. ** Now," 
says an eminent minister of the gospel 
on this subject, *' if sixty or seventy years 
after the resurrection, and when the des- 
truction of Jerusalem had made way for 
the full development of the gospel, the 
first day of the week is called the Lord's 
day, even as the Apostle Paul calls the 
Eucharist the Lord's Supper ; if the one 
be the memorial of the Lord's resurrec- 
tion, as the other is of his death and pas- 
sion, then we have the most satisfactory 
evidence of the apostle's usage, and, 



MADE FOR MAN. 63 

therefore, of the divine authority of the 
change of the Jewish into the Christian 
Sabbath." Thus, the eyidence ot the 
change of the Sabbath from the example 
of our Lord and his apostles, are conclu- 
sive. 

I have dwelt the longer on the subject 
of the present chapter, because, though 
not in itself of much importance, yet to 
those uninstructed on the subject, it has 
beea the occasion of more perplexity 
than any, or all other things relative to 
the institution or perpetual obligation of 
the Sabbath. 



Chapter IV. 
Section I — Duty, Privilege and Bless- 
ings of Public Worship. 
The direction of the Bible is, that we 
should not forsake the assembling of 
ourselves together. The duty of public 
worship is clearly enjoined in the Scrip- 
tures. The Bible, from beginning to 
end, holds it up as the first natural ob- 
ligation, as well as the first privilege of 
man. ** Worship God," says inspira- 
tion; and when has God commanded 
his rational creatures to do v/hat is not 
their duty, or what is unreasonable or of 
no service to them? If infinite cxcpI- 
lence be an object of love, veneration 
and worship in all its properties, God is 
this object in the highest degree. He is 
the fountain from whence everything 
excellent and lovely flows. If on earth 
there be a personage possessed of amia- 
bleness in an eminent degree, and highly 
exalted among his acquaintances for his 



MADE FOR MAN. 55 

virtue or worth, he is infinitely inferior 
to God ; and all that he possesses is the 
gift of God, flowing from him as streams 
from their fountain. As the moon shines 
from a lustre borrowed from the sun, so 
he, in all his virtues, reflects only a faint 
ray of the divine beauty and excellency. 
If in heaven there is an angel of spotless 
purity, and highly exalted in the scale 
of moral excellency, he is but the crea- 
tion of God, and infinitely below him in 
all that is glorious and lovely. Were 
we to combine, iia one mass, ail that is 
glorious and praiseworthy in the uni- 
verse, we should still have but a sand in 
the balance, when weighed against the 
infinite glory and perfection of Jehovah. 
All proceeds from him, and yet his ful- 
ness is not diminished. Is it not a blessed 
privilege, publicly to worship such a 
God ? Must not he who does not delight 
in such worship, either be ignorant of 
the true character of God, or dead to all . 
that is good, noble and praiseworthy in 
the universe? 

If favors bestowed, justly demand a 
return of love, in proportion to their 



66 THE SABBATH 

value, then God may well claim from us 
our highest veneration and most pro- 
found worship. Who, on account of 
benefits conferred, can rival him who 
gave us all our facilities, and who con- 
stantly preserves us? Turn your eyes 
within, and see what you can find in the 
social affections or the operations of the 
mind, which God has not given. When 
you view these curiously-formed bod- 
ies, you see something of what God has 
wi'ought. Whence came all our capaci- 
ties for enjoyment ? Why was not every 
sound a shriek of terror ? Wliy was not 
every sight that of '* garments rolled in 
blood ?" Why does not perpetual winter 
bind the earth in icy fetters? Why is 
not every plant in the vegetable world a 
poison, and every beast in the animal 
world a tiger thirsting for blood ? Is it 
"not because God is good, and from him 
every good gift descends ? As, then, we 
receive, thus jointly with our fellow 
creatures, such blessings from God, is it 
not reasonable that our souls should be 
drawn out to him by the sweetest cords 
of gratitude in public and social worship ? 



MADE FOR MAN. 57 

But there is a work of God, before 
which those of creation and providence 
are, comparatively, small ; a work at 
which Gabriel wonders and Satan trem- 
bles. I mean the work of redemption. 
When the fatal fruit was torn from the 
tree of knowledge, God, instead of bar- 
ring man from heaven, as he did from 
Eden, by a flaming sword, gave his son 
to die, that through his merits and inter- 
cession he might one day enter a fairer 
paradise, where no fruit shall tempt — no 
serpent enchant. For this work the soul 
of man should ever thrill with ecstacy. 
Human hearts cannot conceive, human 
tongues cannot express it. The *' an- 
gels desire to look into it." Fathom, if 
you can, that ocean of gratitude which 
such a work demands. Eternity will be 
but long enough to tell the story of won- 
der. This single work lays man under 
eternal obligation to worship God. How 
important that we never forsake the as- 
sembling of ourselves together, as ^-he 
manner of some (yea, of many) is. 

The public worship of God is not only 
a duty, but an inestimable privilege, as 



58 THE SABBATH 

it confers upon us the greatest good. lu 
its utility may be seen the wisdom and 
kindness of our Heavenly Father. 

It is one of the strongest pillars of 
civil society. The happiness of society 
consists in the suppression of crime ; the 
cultivation of the social and benevolent 
feelings, and the enjoyment of such laws 
as secure to all their rights and privil- 
eges. The public worship of God has 
a direct tendency to secure and preserve 
these to a people. The preaching of the 
gospel is the strongest antidote against 
crime. 

Those who have been trained up un- 
der the influence of the sanctuary have 
seldom been found guilty of any fla- 
grant offence. The number of malefac- 
tors brought to the bar of justice has 
been found to be in proportion to the 
number of those who neglect the public 
worship of God. This worship extends 
the most benign and salutary influence 
over the social affections. It enjoins 
every duty by the weighty consideration 
of eternal reward or punishment. It 
inculcates everything connected with 



MADE FOR MAN. 59 

peace, honor and human felicity, and 
discountenances everything hurtful and 
dangerous. In the public worship of 
God, the ruler and the ruled, the parent 
and the child, the master and the ser- 
vant, all meet for the same end — all 
stand on the same level — all receive the 
same blessings. There, they have sol- 
emnly impressed upon their minds their 
reciprocal duties. Thus, the public wor-* 
ship of God becomes the bond and ce- 
ment of society, its firmest support, its 
greatest ornament. 

People sometimes say: ''We are not 
able to support the gospel." And par- 
ishes that are not wealthy, saj : ** We 
are not able to support the gospel." And 
this language conveys the idea that the 
gospel is a tax; that it diminishes so 
much of the wealth of the place, without 
rendering any equivalent. But this is a 
most incorrect idea. The gospel more 
than supports itself, wherever it is faith- 
fully preached. It is a debtor to no man. 
In a worldly point of view, merely, it 
saves more money in the curtailing of 
extravagances, in the suppression of 



60 THE SABBATH 

crime, intemperance and vice of various 
kinds, than it costs to support it. 

To be convinced of this, you need only 
compare those places that have the gos- 
pel preached with those who have it not. 
And are the people that CDJoy it poorer 
than those who do not possess it? Are 
they more ignorant as to worldly "knowl- 
ledge ? more illiterate, stupid or iado- 
•lent? Go into a town where the gospel 
is preached, where it is decently and 
honorably supported, and where the 
sanctuary is regularly and punctually 
visited; are there more marks of pov- 
erty and wretchedness and decay there, 
than where the gospel is not preached? 
Are the houses more wanting in de- 
cency? Are there more broken panes 
of glass — more clapboards and shingles 
off, or hanging by a single nail — more 
roofs, which, ** through the idleness of 
the hands, drop through ?" Are the 
walls and fences more dilapidated P 
Does the ground more resemble the 
sluggard's *' vineyard, covered with net- 
tle and thorns ?" Are these things more 
prevalent where the gospel is preached 



MADE FOR MAN. 61 

than where it is not preached ? It is be- 
lieved every man must be constrained to 
answer, ** No !'' Are you a merchant — 
in which place would you wish to open 
your shop, or establish your sons in busi- 
ness? Are you an artisan or a mechanic 
— which would you prefer the scenes of 
your labors in ? Setting all moral and 
religious considerations aside, and con- 
templating those only which refer to a 
lucrative employment, who would not 
prefer the town which had a preached 
gospel ? 

Said an infidel in the presence of the 
writer, * ' I have no belief in Cnristian- 
ity. I discard it altogether. But still, 
there is something attending it, which, 
to me, is unaccountable. I own two 
farms. They are nearly the same as to 
the quality of the soil. One of them is 
in a town where the gospel is preached ; 
the other where it is not. The one where 
the gospel is preached will sell for twice 
as much, acre by acre, as the other. 
And though I believe the whole system 
called Christianity to have originated in 
priestcraft, yet, if I owned property in a 



62 THE SABBATH 

town where the gospel was not preached, 
I should be willing to pay an annual tax 
towards its support, setting all consid- 
erations aside, save pecuniary interests." 

We have no doubt the above conces- 
sion is but what the experience of a 
worldly-wise man dictated. The gospel, 
then, the public worship of God is a 
privilege, as it increases the value of 
property. 

But to the Christian, the public wor- 
ship of God appears far more important 
than to the man of the world. He real- 
izes that it not only establishes, upon 
a firm basis, all his social privileges, 
giving a zeal to each, and increases the 
value of worldly property, but also con- 
fers spiritual blessings whose worth can- 
not be estimated. 

The institution of public worship is 
the chief means through which sinners 
are converted. The Spirit usually per- 
forms his operations on the heart, through 
the instrumentahty of truth. Those, 
therefore, who neglect the stated admin- 
istration of the word, have but little 
reason to hope for the grace of God. 



MADE FOR MAN. 63 

** Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 
by the word of God." But the word 
cannot be heard without a preacher. 
Those who wait upon God in his sanc- 
tuar}^, may hope for that grace ** which 
bringeth salvation." Here the *' moral'' 
law, as the ceremonial once did to the 
Jews, becomes **our school-masters to 
bring us to Christ." Here, ^* the wages 
of sin" are shown to be "death;" and 
** the gift of God to be eternal life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." Here, 
we are shown our guilt, the iniquities of 
the heart are laid open, and our aliena- 
tions from God made manifest. Here, 
too, in the sanctuary, the Lamb of God 
is pointed out as the only sacrifice for 
sin. Here, " by the legate of the skies, 
the violated law speaks out its thun- 
ders ; and by him, in strains as sweet as 
angels use, the gospel whispers peace.'' 
It is through the instrumentality of the 
preached word, that the power of God 
is generally seen in renewing the heart, 
in transforming it into his own moral 
image, and pouring into it the light of 
heaven. 



64 THE SABBATH 

In the public worship of God, too, 
Christians are perfected in the divine 
life. The disciples of Christ, when first 
born of the spirit, are children. They 
are to be fed and nourished by spiritual 
food, until they attain ^* the fall stature 
of perfect men in Christ." It is as much 
the appointment of God, that the child 
of grace should grow by the preached 
word, by the administered ordinances of 
the gospel, as that the new-born infant 
should be nourished by appropriate food. 
It is by theapplication of divine food that 
the Spirit carries on the work. He takes 
of the things of Christ and shows them 
to the Christian ; and, he, ordinarily, 
does this through the instrumentality of 
a preached gospel. The gospel is a 
** treasure in earthen vessels," and it is 
God's appointment that these vessels 
shall be used in sanctifying human hearts. 

Another privilege, which the public 
worship of God confers upon Christians 
is, that of openly professing the name 
of Christ. Here, they openly proclaim 
their love to the Saviour. Here, they 
surround the table of their Lord, and 



MADE FOR MAN. 65 

commemorate his death. Here, they 
proclaim to the world that they are not 
ashamed of *' Christ crucified." Here, 
they are seen, a peculiar people, hold- 
ing communion with each other, and 
with Christ their Head. Here, their 
hearts, their objects, their all, are one. 
Plere, they are preparing for mansions 
of bliss at God's right hand. Their 
prayers, their praises, yea, all their ser- 
vices in the sanctuar}^ ascend before/ 
God, when offered through faith in the 
sacrifice of his Son, as a cloud of in- 
cense with which he is well pleased. 

In the worship of God, Christians are 
formed into churches for the mutual edi- 
fication of each .other, and ^* for the fur- 
therance of the gospel," that they may 
send it abroad to all the nations \)f the 
earth, until the sound shall be heard 
from pole to pole, '' The kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdom of our 
God and of his Christ." Here, the minister 
of Jesus *' establishes the strong, restores 
the weak, reclaims the wanderer, binds 
the broken heart, and, armed himself in 
panoply complete, furnishes with arms 



66 THE SABBATH 

bright as his own, and trains to holy dis- 
cipline of heavenly war, the sacramental 
hosts of God's elect." 

How important, then, the duty, how 
inestimable the privilege of public wor- 
ship ! How congenial to the perform- 
ance of this duty and the enjoyment of 
this privilege is the holy Sabbath ! How 
admirable the wisdom, how great the 
goodness of God in its institution! **The 
Sabbath was made for man." He who 
consecrates it to the worship of God, 
puts himself in the way of receiving 
innumerable blessings. He who ne- 
glects such worship, deprives himself of 
many temporal enjoyments, and of all 
reasonable hope of that '' grace of God 
thatbringeth salvation." 

Section 2. — Whe7i is the Sabbath pro- 
faned'? To know 7vhen the holy Sabbath 
is profaned^ we must first ascertain hoia 
it ought to be kept. And to know how 
it should be kept, we must examine the 
purpose for which it was instituted, the 
duties which it claims, and the spirit 
with which those duties are to be per- 
formed. 



MADE FOR MAN. 67 

1. It was instituted to be a sign of 
tlie covenant between God and man, and 
an important means of sanctification. '* I 
gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign be- 
tween me and them, that they might 
know that I am the Lord that sanctified 
them." The Lord, in another place, says, 
'* Yerily my Sabbath ye shall keep; 
for it is a sign between me and you 
throughout your generations, that you 
may know that I am the Lord that doth 
sanctify you." The Sabbath, then, ap- 
pears to have been instituted to be a 
sign between God and man to promote 
man's sanctification. Is sanctification 
important? The Sabbath, then, which 
promotes that sanctification, must be so. 
One day in seven, it calls us from our 
secular pursuits to attend to our spiritual 
concerns. The design of God in the in- 
stitution of the Sabbath was the sanctifi- 
cation of man. 

2. Look at the duties which the Sab- 
bath demands. These are public andpW- 
vaie. The publio duties are such as 
relate to the public worship of God. 
These have been sufficiently noticed in 



68 THE SABBATH 

the last section, to which the reader is 
referred. We are now to speak of the 
private duties which belong to the Sab- 
bath, such as the ^'laying aside all 
worldly or secular business, 'reading the 
Bible, secret and family prayer, and the 
instruction of children or domestics/' 

IS'o secular labor is to to be done on 
this day. Six days we are to labor and 
do ; not some, or a part, or the most, but 
all our work. Read the fourth com- 
mandment. **Kemember the Sabbath 
day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work: but the 
seventh, is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God. In it thou shalt not do any work: 
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, thy 
cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy 
gate." The whole Sabbath is to be kept 
from labor. The head of each family is 
not to labor himself, nor sufi'er any one 
under his roof or control to labor. 

But what multitudes profane the Sab- 
bath by labor ! Do not the work-shops, 
and stores, and counting-rooms, and 
fields, even, of many, bear witness against 



MADE FOR MAN. 69 

them ? It was Dot so in the clays of our 
fathers. Then the ichole Sabbath was 
kept as holy tiaie. Does any one ask : 
**May I not spend the remainder of the 
day in repose, or indolence, or labor, 
provided I attend public worship?" We 
reply, is it enough to worship God two 
hours in a day and give the rest to the 
world ? Do you expect to be benefited 
by public worship without any prepara- 
tory meditation or prayer ? Probably a 
principal reason why so many are not 
profited by the services of the sanctuary, 
is, they do wot prepare to hear the word 
From amass of worldly cares they rush, 
at once, into the presence of the Lord, 
to hear his truth. I^ow, those who 
secularize the whole Sabbath, save while 
they are in the sanctuary, have no just 
ground to expect benefit from the gospel 
preached. 

Is it the Sabbath morn, or forenoon, ■ 
or evening, we are to keep holy ? Is it 
not the Sabbath day7 

Every person is bound to devote some 
portion of the Sabbath to the perusal of 
the Scriptures. The Scriptures are our 



70 THE SABBATH 

Heavenward Chart, and when we neglect 
these Scriptures, or suffer them to lie by 
us unread, we act as unwisely as the ma- 
riner, who, while exposed to danger, 
neglects his chart; or, we are as un- 
grateful and foolish, as the child would 
be who never consulted his father's will, 
which conveyed to him a rich legacy. 
But what time can be so appropriate for 
the examination of this chart, for the 
reading of this will, as the holy Sabbath ? 
Then, everything is, or should be, still 
and favorable to meditation. Then, 
especially, have we the greatest reason 
to expect the enlightening and sanctify- 
ing influence of the Spirit to attend the 
perusal of the word. In ordinary cir- 
cumstances, it may be said of that man 
who reads no portion of the Bible on the 
Sabbath, he profanes that holy day. 

Secret prayer is also a duty that should 
occupy a part of every Sabbath. '" Ea- 
ter into thy closet," said our Lord, ** and 
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to 
thy Father." This duty is to be per- 
formed every day ; but, especially, on the 
Sabbath. How pleasant the duty, how 



MADE FOR MAN. 71 

delightfal the privilege, of communing 
with God on this sacred day ! That per- 
son who never prays in secret on the 
Lord's day, may be truly said to profane 
that day. 

Family prayer is also a duty devolving 
upon every head of a family. Jehovah 
has threatened to pour out his fury upon 
the families that call not upon his name. 
This duty is incumbent every day, but 
especially on the Sabbath. He who lets 
the holy Sabbath pass without calling 
his family together, and offering with, 
and for them, tiie incense of prayer and 
praise, neglects a plain duty, and cer- 
tainly profanes God's Sabbath. This is 
such a duty and privilege as will not be 
neglected by a Christian. He will not 
let the Sabbath's sun rise and set, with - 
out calling around the family altar those 
dear objects of his affection, and com- 
mending them to the protection of that 
Great Being on whom they are all de- 
pendent for life, and all its temporal 
joys, and for all their hopes of salvation 
beyond the grave. 

The Sabbatn is prof^xned when parents 



72 THE SABBATH 

and guardians neglect to instruct and 
govern their children, and the youth un- 
der their care. 

A more sacred veneration for the Sab- 
bath was never cherished by any class 
of men than by the Puritan settlers ot 
New Erigkind. Says Neale, in his his- 
tory of the Puritans, '' It was a distin- 
guished mark of a Puritan in those times, 
to see him going to church twice a day, 
with his Bible under his arm, and while 
others were at plays and interludes — at 
revels, or walliing in the fields, or at thi 
diversions of bowling, fencing, etc., on 
the evening of the Sabbath, these with 
their families were employed in reading 
the Scriptures, singing psalms, and cate- 
chising their children, repeating sermons 
and prayers.'' 

This, would indeed be called '* puri- 
tanical" in our day, and puritanical it 
was then. I refer to their mode of in- 
structing their families, to show the 
change from what it was then, to what 
it is, now. 

Call up some grey-headed father, or 
mother that still lingers among us, and 



MADE FOR MAN. 73 

ask, what tlie custom of educating chil- 
dren was in his or her early days, and 
you will be told, *' My father and moth- 
er taught me to read the Bible on the 
Sabbath. On Saturday night, even, we 
were assembled to be catechised. On 
the Sabbath morning, we were all gath- 
ered together and taught the nature of 
holy time, and made to say the com- 
mandments and the catechism. At the 
hour of public worship, we went, with 
our parents, to the sanctuary; we were 
under their eyes during the service of 
the house of God. When we returned 
home, instead of finding a dinner of 
roast beef, or turkey, and hot puddings, 
we partook of a frugal repast, cooked, as 
the Israelites gathered their manna, on 
the preceding day, and which infringed 
but little on the solemn duties of the 
Sabbath. In the afternoon, divine serv- 
ice was attended, as in the morning, un- 
der the eye of our parents. 

And what, you ask was the result of 
such a system of family government and 
mstniction? I answer, a Sabbath, such 



74 THE SABBATH 

as New England has not seen for tlie 
last century— a clay in which ** Holiness 
to the Lord" was inscribed on every 
thing. Such a course of discipline raised 
up a race of men who were valiant for 
the truth, and courageous in the dis- 
charge of every duty. Under this disci- 
pline and instruction, such a state of 
morals was brought about, as led White- 
field, after visiting America twelve times, 
to say publicly, in London, ^*I know of 
no place upon the lace of the earth, 
where the Sabbath is kept as it is in 
Boston, in New England; if a single 
person were to walk in Boston streets in 
time of worship, he would be taken up." 
How has the gold since become dim, 
and the most fine gold changed? But 
let the present members of the church 
of Christ, and other friends of morality 
and good order, again adopt a similar 
course of family-government and fam- 
ily-instruction, and assemble regularly 
twice, and only twice, on the Lord''s 
day, and similar days would return. 
Let them prepare for the approach of 
holy time; let them welcome its arri- 



MADE FOR MATSr. 75 

val ; let them turn away their feet from 
doing their own pleasure on that sacred 
day ; let them spend the hours of inter- 
mission from public worship in family 
duties, and keep their children under 
their eyes while at the sanctuary, and a 
vsacred stillness would ao:ain reim around 
their habitations^ well becoming the holy 
day, first appointed to commemorate the 
rest of Jehovah from the work of crea- 
tion: — ** their sons would be as plants 
grown up in their youth, and their 
daughters as corner-stones, polished af- 
ter the similitude of a palace." It is 
now in the power of the church and 
the moral part of the community to 
sanctify the Sabbath. Let them apply 
themselves to the work and it will be 
done. If, then, the pious part of the 
community do not erect the standard 
and rally around it, and bring back 
those days of primitive morals, they are 
chargeable with profaning the Sabbath. 
And with whatever pretensions of piety 
parents and guardians may visit the Sab- 
bath School, or the regular service of 
Sanctuary, or a Sabbath evening lecture, 



78 THE SABBATH 

if they leave their children, and those 
under their care, at home, to play, or 
permit them to ramble about the streets 
and disturb the worship, where they 
themselves do not attend, or permit 
them to whisper, and play and laugh, 
in the house of God — they are guilty of 
profaning the Sabbath. Famil}^ gov^ern- 
ment, discipline and instruction are the 
root, of all government, discipline and 
instruction. The following language 
on this subject, by an excellent writer, 
ought to be graven on the heart of every 
Christian, every parent, every patriot. — 
*' The neglect of family-government is 
one of the most alarming signs of the 
times. It is not only a great evil, but 
a wide spread and deep rooted one. 
Christian parents are little more faithful 
to their offspring, in manj^ places, than 
ungodly parents. The rein is thrown 
upon the neck of youthful folly, till it 
runs into all manner of extravagance, 
and plunges into sloughs of error and 
vice, from which, even the grace of God 
rarely extricates the unhappy victim. It 
is forgotten, that God has committed' the 



MADE FOR MAN. 77 

guardianship of youth into the hands of 
mature age, and parental love, and that 
these divmely constituted guardians are 
responsible at the tribunal of God for 
the fulfilment of their trust; and hence, 
the tears and groans of so many parents 
over their withered hopes and blasted 
prospects of comfort in their children. 

Infidelity never raised a more malig- 
nant cry against Christianit7, than when 
it denounced parental government as 
tyranical, and incompatible with the 
rights of children. Yet even Christians 
have sometimes listened to it, and yielded 
to its influence, till their families have 
been ruined." 

Having stated the object for which the 
Sabbath was instituted, and noticed 
some of the duties which it claims, let 
us now briefly consider our third propo- 
sition. 

3. The spirit with which these duties 
are to be performed. They should be 
performed in the true spirit of the Chris- 
tian dispensation. This is a spirit of 
rest and delight in God, a sense of re- 
freshment and repose in his more im- 



78 THE SABBATH 

mediate presence. The prevailiDg feel- 
ing of the mind with which these duties 
are to be performed, is well described in 
the following language of the Psalmist : 
*' How amiable are thy tabernacles, 
O Lord of Hosts ; my soul longeth, yea, 
even fainteth for the courts of the Lord ; 
ray heart and my flesh crieth out for the 
living God — a day in thy courts is better 
than a thousand ; I had rather be a door- 
keeper in the house of my God, than to 
dwell in the tents of wickedness. One 
thing have I desired of the Lord, that 
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the 
house of the Lord all the days of my 
life, to behold the fair beauty of the 
Lord and inquire in his temple. My soul 
shall be satisfied, as with marrow and 
fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee 
with joyous lips." Such is the delightful 
spirit with which the duties of the Sab- 
bath are to be performed. 

The same thing is most beautifully 
described by Isaiah, the gospel prophet : 
* ' If thou turn away thy foot from the 
Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my 
holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, 



MADE FOR MAN. / \J 

the hol}^ of the Lord, honorable ; and 
shalt honor him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, 
nor speaking thine own words ; then 
shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." 
The day of the Lord is to be esteemed 
honorable above all other days. In it we 
are specially to honor Him who formed 
us, whose long sufTering preserves us, 
and whose unsearchable riches of grace 
have opened for us a way to eternal life. 
Love, choice and reverence to God, his 
majesty, his sovereign control of us, his 
infinite excellency, his constant bene- 
fits, his over-ruling providence, and his 
never-failing provisions for all our tem- 
poral and eternal existence, should be 
the theme of our delightful contempla- 
tion on this holy day. How beautiful 
and lovely this spirit, when contrasted, 
with that with which, we fear, many 
view the Sabbath — that of a yoke, a bur- 
den, a mere task. *'If thou turn away 
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing 
thy pleasure on my holy day." This is 
the grand difficulty — men, too often, 
prefer sensual repose, to spiritual; in- 



80 THE SABBATH 

tellectual effort, to devotional ; the pleas- 
ures of appetite to the pleasures of the 
soul in God. There must be a change. 
Our own pleasure must be given up. 
Amusement, recreation, pastime, indo- 
lent repose, satisfaction in worldy com- 
pany, worldly society, worldly banquets, 
must be forsaken. The joy of the soul 
in God, the pleasures of devotion, of 
faith, of hope, of communion with the 
great Father of Spirits, must be sought. 
Then will "the Sabbath be a delight, 
the holy of the Lord, honorable." The 
Sabbath will no longer be profaned ; and 
then, how delightful will it be, when oc- 
cupied as it should be! Can you im- 
agine a scene more inviting than that of 
a family, a neighborhood, a town, hon- 
oring the day of God, with cheerful and 
grateful hearts— where devout meditation 
on the sanctification, which is the design 
of this day, reigns in every heart. The 
time is filled up with private and public 
devotion ; the true filial. Christian spirit 
is imbibed — not the spirit of ** bondage 
again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, 
crying, Abba Father !" 



MADE FOR MAN. 81 

Section 3. The Babhath profaned by 
the conversation of professing Christians. 

Anciently, when the iniquity of Goers 
people was taken away, and they were 
received graciously, they said, *' we will 
render the calves of our lips," by this is 
meant '' the fruit of our lips, the sacri- 
fice of praise to God, giving glory to his 
name." There are many passages in 
the Scriptures, which were designed to 
guide Christians in their conversations. 
They are to '^ let no corrupt communi- 
cation proceed out of their mouth, but 
that which is good to the use of edifying, 
that it may minister grace unto the hear- 
ers." That they should be specially 
watchllil over their conversations on the 
Holy Sabbath, is plainly inferred from 
the lively oracles. 

It is of vast importance to professing 
Christians that, they should be fully ap- 
prised how, and when they profane the 
Sabbath by their conversation. This is 
often done, 

1. By QOYiYQv^ing too ranch. Perhaps 
it will be said, Christians cannot con- 
verse too much on the Sabbath, if their 



82 THE SABBATH 

conversation is of the right kind. We, 
however, think cliiferently, though we 
confess, it might diminish the evil much, 
if their conversation were always to edi- 
fication as it should be. But, it is be- 
lieved, that Christians do converse too 
much on the Sabbath. It is certain, the 
less there is of the Sabbath taken up in 
conversation, the more time there will be 
be for reflection, self-examination and 
prayer: and how important these are, 
we may learn from almost every page 
of the New Testament, **Know your- 
selves," ** prove your own selves," com- 
mune with your own hearts," let a man 
examine himself," are some of the in- 
spired declarations. It need not be 
said, that when a man is conversing, he 
is not ordinarily examining and commun- 
ing with his own heart. 

The direction for prayer is very simi- 
lar. *' Enter into thy closet,'' **pray 
with out ceasing.^' **I would that men 
pray every where." It need not be said 
that when we are talking, we are not, 
usually, praying. It is believed that if 
Christians spent less of the Holy Sab- 



MADE FOR MAN. 83 

bath in conversation, and more in medi- 
tation, self-examination and prayer, 
they would be more seldom overtaken in 
fault; and possess more vital pity. 

It is feared that even ministers of the 
gospel are sometimes culpable in this 
matter. It becomes us, and we would 
wish to be cautious in censuring any one 
relative to this subject, yet, we consider 
it worthy the inquiry of all who are ap- 
pointed to be the mouth of God to the 
people, whether, if a portion of that time 
which is usually spent in conversation 
on the morning of the Sabbath, had not 
better be spent by the minister of Christ 
in meditating upon the subject which he 
is to present to the people, and in prayer 
to God that he would make the truth 
preached like the fire and the hamimer to 
break the rock in pieces — that he would 
cause it to fall in a fruitful place, and 
prove a savor of life unto life. Would 
it not tend to more glorious results, both 
as it respects pastors and churches? 

Should not we, who are called to watch 
for souls, be less likely to be compelled 
to say at the last, they made us the 



84 THE SABBATH 

keepers of the vineyards but our owu 
vineyard have we not kept ? Should 
we not be more likely to present our 
churches spotless before the throne of 
God? Might not the time, then, be 
spent so as to tell to better advantage, 
upon our immortal destiny, even admit- 
ting that our conversation is, to a good 
degree, seasoned with salt? 

There is another consideration which 
should be noticed here, to wit, that the 
more there is said, the more probable it 
is that, there will be some things said 
that ought not to be. This being the 
case, it seems, there is the more need 
of Christians' watching their tongues and 
guarding against saying too much. 

2. Professing Christians may profane 
the Sabbath by conversing on worldly 
subjects. 

The Sabbath is to be given exclu- 
sively to the duties of religion. Every- 
thing foreign to the glory of God and 
the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom 
— everything that has not a tendency to 
edify the people of God and advance 
their growth in grace — everything that 



MADE FOR MAN. 85 

does not tend to awaken sinners and 
bring them to embrace religion, should 
be laid aside. It is unsuited to the 
solemnities of this day. It is to be 
feared that Christians do not ordinarily 
feel the force of this truth ; yet, it is ca- 
pable of moral demonstration, as has 
been before proved. We know that 
''where our treasure is, there our hearts 
will be;" and that *'out of the abund- 
ance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.'' 
Hence, if Christians engage in worldly 
conversation on the Sabbath, it omens 
ill for their piety. It is hard to conceive 
how their treasures can be in heaven, 
and their hearts there also, and they 
speak out of the abundance of their 
hearts, and still converse freely on 
worldly subjects upon the holy Sabbath. 
It is feared there is too' much of such 
conversation, even in the vestibule and 
aisles, and about the doors of the sanc- 
tuary. The writer would not wish to 
be censorious, but as memory reverts 
back to the scenes of his youth, he re- 
collects many conversations on worldly 
subjects, by professors of religion, on 
the Sabbath. 



86 THE SABBATH 

One conversation he will relate. Four 
or five members of the church were to- 
gether during the intermission. They 
were ship-builders and owners. They 
calculated (not with ink and paper, but 
by mental process) the expense of a ves- 
sel of certain dimensions. The length 
of the keel, depth of the hold, the planks, 
timber, cabin — the spars, rigging and 
deck, were ail taken into the account. 
The whole expense to fit her for sea 
would be six thousand dollars, and then, 
probably, if she made a good voyage, 
she would clear herself the first year. 

The men who held this conversation 
were all professors of religion. This 
being the case, how incongruous to the 
Sabbath was such conversation? By 
the time they had completed the esti- 
mation, the bell rang; they entered the 
sanctuary ; the minister had a good ser- 
mon, inculcating the vast importance of 
forgetting the things that are temporal, 
and looking forward, and preparing for 
those whicli are eternal. In the conclu- 
sion, he drew some inferences, showing 
the folly of those who plan only for 



MADE FOR MAN. 87 

time, and the wisdom of those who plan 
for eternity. He concluded by exhorting 
sinners to repentance, and appealing to 
professors present to bear witness to the 
truth of his statements. 

These brethren wonder how sinners 
can hear such statements, and go away 
unmoved, forgetting eternity and think- 
ing only of time. How little did such 
conduct become the professed people of 
God! How ill were they prepared to 
pray for a revival of religion ! How in- 
congruous to witness them on the eve- 
ning of the same holy day, exhorting 
sinners to repentance and to render 
obedience to all the commands of God. 

The effect of all this upon my mind, 
then a youth, was to lead me to doubt 
as to all religion. It looked like playing 
a game, and if there was such a thing 
as religion, the whole was a dark enigr 
ma. How strikingly do the words of 
the Apostle James apply to such a case : 
''Can a fountain send forth at the same 
place, sweet water and bitter ? " Politi- 
cal questions are sometimes made the 
theme of conversation by Christians on 



88 THE SABBATH 

the Sabbath. Immense evil arises from 
this source. 

When N'apoleon was in the zenith of 
his glory, (perhaps I ought to say 
shame), I remember hearing several 
professing Christians conversing, during 
the interim from public worship on the 
Sabbath, relative to his career. The 
whole story of his usurpation and pro- 
gress was recited. They seemed to pos- 
sess the spirit of prophecy, even, and 
not only told wliat he had done, but also 
what he would do. Russia was to fall 
before him. He was to go on conquer- 
ing and to conquer, until the British lion 
crouched at his feet. Next, he was to 
cross the Atlantic, and set his blood- 
stained foot on the neck of America. 

The above might have been extreme 
cases ; and far be it from me to inti- 
mate, that all our brethren, in their con- 
versation on the Sabbath, built a ship or 
prescribe bounds to a conqueror. But 
is it uncharitable to say, it is feared 
there is much worldly conversation by 
professed Christians on the holy Sab- 
bath ? 



MADE FOR MAN. 89 

If Christians thought of the King of 
Kings, as they should, and were as anx- 
ious as they should be to crowd all the 
sail they possibly can upon the gallant 
ship of the gospel, the glad tidings which 
God has launched tor the salvation of a 
dying world, the ships of men and their 
chivalrous exploits would no longer oc- 
cupy one of them for a moment on the 
holy day. 

3. Christians may violate the Sabbath 
by light and trifling conversation. It is 
believed there are but few professed 
Christians who descend to this kind of 
conversation on the Sabbath. And still, 
it is feared there are some. I have 
known it said, that a smart repartee 
from a Christian to a man of the world, 
on the Sj^bbath, might do him good. 
Now, this is admitted. The thing is 
possible, though, I believe a rare one. 
But, even admitting that God should 
bless a light and trifling speech, made 
by a Christian on the Sabbath, to the 
conversion of the soul, yet, to use such 
language, to say the least, looks like do- 
ing evil that good may come, which, it 



90 THE SABBATH 

hardly needs be said, is never admissi- 
ble. Christians ought to guard against 
such conversations at all times, and es- 
pecially on the Sabbath. We shall do 
well to remember that for every idle 
word we shall speak, we must give an 
account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment. And then, let it be remembered, 
how much more heinous it is to trifle on 
the Sabbath than at other times. 

4. Christians may violate the Sab- 
bath by conversing m an improper man- 
ner upon religeous subjects. 

Much evil often arises from not 
timing things well. It is to be teared 
that many pious j)arents lose much of 
the religious instruction which they give 
their children on the Sabbath, by com- 
municating it in a hasty, inconsiderate 
way. 

It is remarked by the eminently good 
Mr. James, that, "Instruction, to be 
well received, must always be delivered 
with great seriousness^ The light and 
trifling way in which it is sometimes 
delivered, destroys all its effect, and 
reduces it to the level of a mere science. 



MADE FOR MAN. 91 

It is to be feared that the multiplying of 
public exercises in most of our churches 
on the Sabbath, affords some excuse to 
parents for not communicating instruc- 
tion to their children at home on that 
day ; or, for communicating it in an im- 
proper manner. And it is believed there 
is some weight in, and in our day some 
need of the following remark from the 
pen of the same excellent writer : **Xo 
parent, who has a numerous family, and 
who resides in a large town, where 
much time must necessarily be occupied 
in going to, and returning from hisplace 
of worship, should attend the house of 
God more than twice on the Sabbath; 
the other part of the day should be oc- 
cupied in the midst of his family." This 
is far too much neglected in this day of 
over-much preaching. 

More injury may be done by convers- . 
ing improperly on the Sabbath, than 
people generally suppose. ** Words fitly 
chosen," and appropriately spoken, *'are 
like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

5. The only other way which will be 
named at present, by which Christians 



92 THE SABBATH 

violate the Sabbath by improper con- 
versation, is the way in which they 
often converse of the preaching and 
the preacher. 

To communicate my meaning fully on 
this point, it will be necessary to allude 
to the hearing, as well as to convers- 
ing of the preaching and the preacher. 

The great Captain of our salvation 
has admonished us to *'take heed what 
we hear." As every Christian is respon- 
sible for what he hears, he ought to 
guard against hearing heresy. When 
this is the case, it is no marvel that the 
conversation relative to both the preach- 
ing and the preacher should be wrong. 
To explain my meaning, suffer me to 
quote the following language of Kobert 
Hall: **In most dissenting congrega- 
tions, there are one or more persons 
who value themselves on their skill in 
detecting the unsoundness of ministers ; 
and who, when they hear a stranger, 
attend his service less with a view to spir- 
itual improvement, than to pass their ver- 
dict, which they expect will be received 
as decisive. It is almost unnecessary to 



MADE FOR MAN. 93 

add that they usually consist of the 
most ignorant, conceited, and irreli- 
gious part of the society; for the dis- 
position to sit in judgment upon the 
preacher is generally in an inverse pro- 
portion to the ability." It would be 
well if all such remembered the admo- 
nition of our Lord, equally plain, and 
equally important, **Take heed how ye 
hear." 

This leads me to the point now under 
discussion, viz., the manner of convers- 
ing respecting the preacliing and the 
preacher. Christians may do good by 
conversing, in a proper manner, re- 
specting the sermons they hear. But 
when they find fault with some, partic- 
ular doctrine of the Bible, which they 
hear preached, they always do evil. It 
is feared some are too apt to do this, 
even when they hear a gospel sermon. 
Some are rarely satisfied unless they 
hear at all times purely doctrinal ser- 
mons. Then they are in raptures. They 
are on the mount, and wish to build 
tabernacles that they may stay there 
forever. And, probably, still a larger 



94 THE SABBATH 

number are never satisfied, when they 
hear a doctrinal sermon. Doctrinal ser- 
mons preach them to sleep. They are 
all for practical preaching. Now it is 
impossible for any man to preach and 
have all his sermons purely practical 
and purely doctrinal. And it would be 
far more decorous and christian-like, if 
these persons would consider, and act 
upon the priaciple, that the whole Gos- 
pel ought to be preached, that **all 
Scripture is given by inspiration," &c., 
and that what is not relished by them, 
because they have a palate suited to a 
peculiar kind of food only, may be 
highly necessary and received with the 
keenest zest by another whose palate 
craves this very species of food, and 
who has his senses exercised to discern it. 
If each, instead of wishing to abridge 
the provisions of the whole family, 
would take his proper share, the case 
would be much better. Is it asked 
what connection this has with Christians 
violating the Sabbath by conversation? 
The reply is, it is on the Sabbath that 
preaching is generally heard, and peo- 



MADE FOR MAN". 95 

pie converse most on things at the 
time they are presented to their minds. 
Hence, when they do not relish the 
truths of the sanctuary, they are very 
liable to violate the Sabbath by speak- 
ing of those truths. No man can cal- 
culate the amount of evil which' may 
result from a Christian's speaking in- 
advertently of a truth he has heard 
preached. That very truth may have 
taken hold of the impenitent heart, and 
by the influence of the Holy Spirit, be 
operating, **like the fire and the ham- 
mer, to break the rock in pieces." But 
a single word dropped from the pro- 
fessed Christian, expressive of his dis- 
approbation, as he returns from the 
sanctuary, or during the interval from 
public worship, may be seized upon by 
the awakened soul, and lull his con- 
science to sleep. Then the stroke of 
the hammer stops. The action of the 
fire ceases, and the sinner goes back to 
his state of carnal security, in all prob- 
ability never again to be awakened, till 
by the messenger of death or the arch- 
angel's trump. 



96 THE SABBATH 

If you converse about the services of 
the Sabbath, I beseech you be careful 
how you speak lightly of any part of the 
sacred volume. Remember that all parts 
of it were given just as Infinite Wisdom 
saw best to give them, and that they are 
all profitable. Beware how you trifle 
with any part of God''s word. The Is- 
raelites ate angel's food, but their lan- 
guage was, ^'Our soul loatheth this 
light bread." Other food for which they 
hankered, was given them, but the curse 
of Jehovah accompanied it. When the 
truth of God is exhibited, as revealed in 
the Bible, so as to show your utter de- 
pravity and destitution of holiness by 
nature — your entire helplessness and in- 
sufficiency to save yourselves by any of 
your own works, and you are then 
thrown into the arms of a sovereign God, 
whose smile is life, and whose frown is 
death — when those, and other kindred 
topics of revelation, are so presented as 
to bear upon the conscience, remember 
you can have other food, but it is food 
that will starve your immortal soul — 
food on which the curse of Jehovah 



MADE FOR MAN. 97 

rests. Better know the truth and ac- 
knowledge it. Let the wound be probed 
to the bottom, that it may be healed. 

The instruments who communicate 
these truths are, comparatively, of but 
little importance. They will soon be 
removed from this field of labor — the 
places that now know them, will soon, 
know them no more forever. But the 
truths themselves will remain. Not one 
jot or tittle of them will fail, till the 
heavens be no more. How injudicious, 
then, to spend the hours of holy time in 
conversing about the instruments, and 
forgetting the truth inculcated — think- 
ing only of the messenger, and forget- 
ting the message. 

Finally, remember, that if any man 
offend not in word, the same is a per- 
fect man, and able to govern the whole 
body — his own body, and the church of 
God. Let us henceforward render the 
calves of our lips, on the Sabbath, giving 
glory to God. 

Section 4. The guilt of profaning 
the holy Sabbath, and the punishment 
to be expected to follow its profanation. 



98 THE 'SABBATH 

When and how the Sabbath is pro- 
faned, has been shown in a former sec- 
tion. We are now to speak of the evil 
or guilt, and the punishment of it. It 
is represented as an evil ; and an evil of 
no small magnitude we shall find it to 
be upon examination. The charge pre- 
ferred by God against the Jews by the 
prophet Malachi, was a heinous one. 
No less than robbery, and that, not of 
men, but of God. Robbery, not by an 
individual, but by a whole nation. It 
was in religion, too, that they had 
robbed God, *'in tithes and offerings." I 
fear the same charge may be substan- 
tiated against our nation, that they have 
robbed God, and that in religion. The 
evil, the guilt of profaning the Sabbath, 
lies upon us as a nation, a people. I 
mean as it respects God's holy Sabbath. 
Robbery is the taking by force that 
which is another's, without the consent 
of the owner, and appropriating it to 
our own use. Men have often done 
this in respect to God's Sabbath. They 
are servants of God, bound to obey him 
by the strongest obligations. All time 



MADE FOR MAN. 99 

is God's. Man has no right to any more 
of it than God pleases to give him. God 
has given him six-sevtnths of it, and 
m that commanded him to do all his 
work. He has forbidden him to do any 
work on every Sabbath day. But man 
has frequently robbed God of the sev- 
enth day. He has appropriated it to his 
own secular purposes. He has sought 
his own pleasure in it, and not God's 
honor. Is not this robbery ? If you had 
but seven hundred dollars in the world, 
and should give your servant six hun- 
dred of it to appropriate to his own use ; 
if instead of being content with that, he 
should break the laws of your house, 
seize, as by force, the seventh hundred, 
and by so doing murder a number of 
your family, would you not call it rob- 
bery ? But have 1 made the case too 
strong? Had not God seven and but 
seven days in a week ? And did he not 
give man six of them to labor for him- 
self ? Did he not forbid him to appro- 
priate the seventh for the same pur- 
poses for which he permitted him to use 
the six ? And has not man often robbed 



100 THE SABBATH 

him of that seventh portion of time ? It 
is, alas, too true to be denied. In doing 
this, also, he has broken the law of 
God's house — the statute book of the 
Most High. And the evil example which 
he has thus set, has murdered the souls 
of multitudes. Is it asked, where is 
such a thing done ? The answer is, 
everywhere. In this town, in every 
town, in every village, in every city 
throughout this vast Union. Who can 
spend a Sabbath in any of our towns or 
cities, and not witness that evil thing, 
a Sabbath profaned — God robbed of holy 
time? That the Sabbath is broken by 
many in a variety of ways, is too plain 
to be denied. 

Let us then proceed to notice the evil 
or guilt of profaning the Sabbath. By 
again glancing at some of the obliga- 
tions which we are under to keep the 
Sabbath holy, and the benefits we derive 
from it, we shall be able to see the evil 
or guilt arising from violating it. 

It is a covenant, or rather the sign of 
a covenant, between God and man. By 
the general consent of our nation, we are 



MADE FOR MAN. 101 

a Christian nation. But why ? Only be- 
cause we have Cimstian institutions, and 
not heathen rites and ceremonies. But 
the preaching of the gospel and the cel- 
ebration of its ordinances all depend 
upon the holy Sabbath. Blot out the 
Sabbath and these are gone. No longer 
should we have sanctuaries or gospel 
ordinances. The inhabitants of our na- 
tion have submitted externall3^ profess- 
edly, to Christian ordinances. Every 
violation of the Sabbath has a tendency 
to break the tie that should bind us to 
God. 

The place you and I fill, as individuals, 
is like a stone in an arch. The strength 
of an arch depends upon every stone 
being in its proper place. Such is the 
importance, in a moral point of view, of 
every one's fulfilling his course and dis- 
charging the duties that devolve upon 
him. Take away the Sabbath, and man 
sinks into a brute. Kead the description 
of those who had no Sabbath, as record- 
ed by the pen of Inspiration in the first 
chapter of the epistle to the Romans. I 
have known a village where the inhabit- 



102 



THE SABBATH 



ants were without a Sabbatli ; and it was 
indeed a wretched one. The mind of no 
one rose much above that of a brute. 
What is the value of your watch, the 
price of your horse, and the worth 
of your dog, were their principal in- 
quiries. Above these their ideas never 
rose. A sense of accountability and 
moral obligation seemed never to have 
entered their minds. So far as principle 
was concerned, they knew not the mean- 
ing of the term. Simple neglect of the 
sanctuary and of the Bible, and profana- 
tion of the Sabbath, reduced this nearly 
to a heathen village, and rendered its 
darkness visible in the n^xlst of a sur- 
rounding region of light. If there is no 
hereafter, no heaven, and no hell, the 
Sabbath-breaker, for the evil he brings 
upon the community in the present 
world, deserves the penitentiary, or pub- 
lic prison. He is a nuisance, a public 
pest. 

But man is an immortal being. There 
is a heaven and a hell. There is a day 
of retribution. The gospel is true. The 
Bible is a revelation from God. 



MADE FOR MAN. 103 

But what is Christianity without the 
Sabbath? Blot out the Sabbath, and 
you, in effect, destroy the Bible. When 
is the Bible generally read ? Is it not 
on the Sabbath? When is the gospel 
generally preached ? Is it not on the 
Sabbath ? When are its ordinances 
administered, if not on the Sabbath? 
Blot out the Sabbath, then, and the sanc- 
tuary is no more. It is no longer the 
house of God and the gate of heaven. 
The minister is no longer the legate of 
the skies, or the gospel " a savor of life 
unto life." 

It is evident, then, that the efficacy of 
the Christian religion, its holy influences, 
its transforming, renovating power, de- 
pend very much upon the sanctification 
of the Sabbath. How great, then, the 
evil of profaning the Sabbath? How 
enormous its gaiilt? The profanation of 
this day provokes the Most High. The 
Sabbath is His day. If we profane His 
Sabbath, then, we touch the honor of 
God, the apple of his eye, and his jeal- 
ousy kindles. No course of conduct can 
more effectually show man's contempt of 



104 THE SABBATH 

God, or the ingratitude and baseness of 
his heart, than an open profanation of 
his holy day. It brings out in bold col- 
ors the unwillingness of man to submit 
to the government of God. It shows his 
strong propensity to rule and govern 
himself; to do what is right in his own 
eyes, and follow the dictates of his own 
heart. 

It is easy to keep the Sabbath. The 
yoke of the Lord is much more easy, and 
the burden much lighter, than many peo- 
ple imagine. It is not a severe task to 
attend public worship twice on the Sab- 
bath. People who labor hard during the 
week often feel as though they cannot 
visit the sanctuary on the Sabbath, es- 
pecially in the morning. But I venture 
to predict, that they will feel much bet- 
ter at the close of this holy day if they 
'have attended regularly the public ser- 
vices of the sanctuary, than they will if 
they have lounged away its sacred hours 
at home. K they have arisen in the 
morning, as they have on other days, 
changed their apparel, and at the sound 
of the church-going bell walked to the 



MADE FOR MAN. 105 

temple of the Lord and participated in 
its solemnities, it will have broken up the 
tediousness of the hours that would have 
been speat at home ; — it will have em- 
ployed the intellect, and, by the blessing 
of God, it may renew and sanctify the 
heart, and prepare the soul for heaven. 
I have conversed with persons who have 
not visited the sanctuary for months, af- 
ter they have again visited it regularly 
for a considerable time, and it has been 
their uniform testimony that they have 
enjoyed better health, more peace ol 
mind, and, in all respects, been more 
profited by the latter than by the former 
course. 

I repeat it — all this is easy. But the 
easier the observance of the Sabbath, and 
the richer the blessino^s liov\in^ from a 
proper discharge of the duties incumbent 
upon it, the more perverse, unreasona- . 
ble and criminal is that man who neg- 
lects these duties. The clc-arer the duty 
is revealed in any instance, and the easi- 
er that duty can be performed, the 
stronger is our obligation to render obe- 
dience. And what can be clearer than 



106 THE SABBATH 

God's requirement, that we should keep 
holy his Sabbath ? Think of the bless- 
ings which this day, properly observed, 
lavishes upon families, neighborhoods, 
parishes, towns and nations, and then 
estimate, if you can, the guilt of him 
who dashes them all away at a single 
blow. The Sabbath-breaker profanes 
the only institution which includes all 
the worship, ail the adoration, all the 
prayer, all the spiritual duties of reli- 
gion. What ingratitude! what an af- 
front to our Almighty Benefactor ! what 
an outrage upon temporal prosperity, 
even ! It should be repeated suflS.ciently 
often to be remembered by all, that if 
there were nothing religious about it, it 
would be for man's interest, happiness 
and prosperity to have a Sabbath. His 
nature demands it. Everything around 
calls him to it ; and if God had not im- 
posed it upon him, he would have rejoic- 
ed to keep it. 

We have seen this truth verified in the 
case of infidel France. She found it 
necessary to have a day of rest. Dire 
necessity for their temporal welfare com- 



MADE FOR MAN. 107 

pelled them to have a decade , or to rest 
one day ia ten. A more striking testi- 
mony to the wisdom and goodness of God 
in instituting a Sabbath, and of the folly 
and wickedness of man in refusing to 
observe the day of divine appointment, 
could not have been given, though ''they 
neither meant so, nor did their heart 
think so." How enormous the evil, then, 
how great the guilt, of profaning the 
Sabbath! Well may we reiterate the 
declaration of holy writ — "What evil is 
this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath 
day ? " What evil does the American 
nation do ? 

Let us now glance at the judgments 
that may be expected to follow the pro- 
fanation of the Sabbath. 

*^ Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have 
robbed me. But ye say, wherein have 
we robbed thee ? In tithes and offerings. 
Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have 
robbed me, even this whole nation. '^ 
The immediate eurse inflicted upon them 
was a temporal judgment. They had re- 
fused to build the temple of Jehovah, 
saying, ^*the time is not come, the time 



108 THE SABBATH 

that the Lord's house should be built." 
They had profaned the Sabbath, and 
withheld the tithes and offerings which 
God had commanded them to bestow 
upon his ordinances ; and for these things 
they were visited with divine judgments. 
The prophet Haggai thus describes their 
case : *' Ye have sown much and bring 
in little ; ye eat, but ye have not enough ; 
ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink ; 
ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; 
and he that earneth wages, earneth wages 
to put it into a bag with holes. Ye 
looked for much, and lo ! it came to lit- 
tle; and when ye brought it home, I 
did blow upon it. Why ? saith the Lord 
of hosts. Because of mine house that 
is waste, and ye run every man unto his 
own house." A more fearful and vivid 
representation of a covetous, avaricious 
people, who rob God and profane his 
Sabbath, and withhold from Jehovah his 
due, cannot be conceived, than that which 
the prophet has here described. 

How often in our day have men imag- 
ined that they should gain something by 
laboring a part or the whole of the Sab- 



MADE FOR MAN. 109 

bath, or by curtailing their usual appro- 
priations to sustain the ordinances of 
God ? Wealth did not flow in upon them 
quite so fast as they desired, though they 
gained year by year. They resolved 
however, to gain faster, and, to accom- 
plish it, robbed God of his holy day, or 
in his ordinances. And the result was 
the same as it was to the Jews. ''They 
looked for much and it came to little? " 
and what they gathered God did ''blow 
upon," or it was put into a "bag with 
holes." How little does he who robs 
God realize with whom he has to do. 
How seldom does he think that the bieath 
of the Almighty, by sending disease and 
blasting, lightning and storm, may de- 
prive him of more in a single week or 
month, or a day even, than all he ever 
gained in his whole bfe by laboring on 
the Sabbath, or by robbing God in any 
other way. The blessing of the Lord, 
that maketh rich. 

Instances are not wanting where the 
curse of God has fallen upon those who 
have robbed him, even in this life. I 
had business with a man in the city. I 



110 THE SABBATH 

called on him one Saturday for my bill. 
''I caimot make it out for you to-day/' 
said he, **but I will have it ready for } ou 
on Monday morning." *^I hope you will 
not make it out on the Sabbath," said I. 
^'Some time after," continued my friend, 
**I had occasion to call on the same man. 
He had failed in business— taken to the 
intoxicating cup to drown his sorrow, 
and was the most miserable looking ob- 
ject I ever saw." ** Ye are cursed with 
a curse." 

A respectable and pious man, in the 
city of New York, kept a list of those 
who made it a point to do business on 
the Sabbath. The result of his observa- 
tion, for twenty- five years, was, that ev- 
ery man who regularly opened his count- 
ing-room on that day failed in his bu- 
siness ; and most of those who died in 
the meantime, died miseraule and de- 
graded, and many of them drunkards. 
One transgression of the law of God sel- 
dom goes alone. He who offends in one 
point has a disposition, and often does, 
transgress in many others. Can a man 
rob God and not expect chastisement ? 



MADE FOR MAN. Ill 

How few, when they rob God of his Sab- 
bath with a view of gaining something 
to themselves, realize how entirely de- 
pendent they are upon him, and in how 
many ways he may disappoint their plans, 
and take from them, in the course of his 
Providence, an hundred-fold more than 
they ever gained by robbing him ? Said 
God of his ancient people, *' Whosoever 
shall not com« up to Jerusalem to wor- 
ship, upon him there shall be no rain." 
What, then, may those expect who pro- 
fane his Sabbaths ? We see from Mala- 
chi, we have seen from the prophet Hag- 
gai, and we may see from various others 
of the prophets, what curses and judg- 
ments were inflicted upon the sacrileg- 
ious Jews. 

Does any one say the gospel is a mild- 
er dispensation ? It is, indeed; and the 
more fearful the punishment of him who 
rebels against it. " If they escaped not 
who refused him that spake on earth, 
much more shall not we escape, if we 
turn away from him that speaketh from 
heaven." If he who despised Moses, 
law died without mercy under two or 



112 THE SABBATH 

three witnesses, of ho^ much sorer pun- 
ishment, suppose ye, he shall be thought 
worthy who hath trodden under foot the 
Son of God, and counted the. blood of 
the covenant wherewith be was sancti- 
fied an unholy thing, and done despite 
unto the Spirit of grace." It is a univer- 
sal law of the Divine government, that 
the more important a statute is to the 
welfare of intelligent beings, and the 
easier it is to render obedience to that 
statute, the more criminal is he who re- 
fuses compliance, and the greater and 
more aggravated will be his punishment. 
'' That servant who knew his Lord's will 
and did it not, was to be beaten with 
many stripes." The way of transgress- 
ors is hard. Many have confessed, when 
they have tei minated a shameful life by 
an ignominious death, that Sabbath- 
breaking has been the sin that has brought 
them to a public execution. If you visit 
our state prisons and penitentiaries, you 
will find many there who will confess 
that if Sabbath-breaking was not the 
chief sin, it had no small share in bring- 
ing them there. This shows why very 



MADE FOR MAN. 113 

few, if any, Sabbath-school scholars have 
ever been found among the number of 
convicts. 

A distinguished jurist of our country, 
who assisted in trying many for murder, 
said, they all began their wickedness by 
breaking the Sabbath. ^*Be sure your 
sin will find you out." Robbery of man 
is an offence punishable by the judges; 
but robbery of God he himself will 
avenge. Is it a light thing to rob God ? 

But the punishment of Sabbath-break- 
ing is not confined to the present world. 
This is not a state of final retribution. 
The penalty of the divine law extends 
to eternity. The Sabbath-breakof;, with 
all other transgressors of that law, will 
then meet the due reward of his deeds. 
While it may be said his '^judgment now 
lingereth not," more fearful condemna- 
tion awaits him in the eternal world. 
Jehovah, the God of the Sabbath, still 
lives. ^*Hehas appointed a day in which 
he will judge the world in righteousness 
by Jesus Christ." At that judgment ev- 
ery Sabbath-breaker must appear. At 
that awful tribunal he must answer for 



114 THE SAB3ATH 

violating a positive command of the Al- 
mighty. Reader, think of that awful 
day. When the Sabbath dawns, remem- 
ber God said, ^ ^My Sabbath ye shall keep ." 
Hear him asking, *'What evil is this that 
ye do and profane the Sabbath day?" 
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands 
of that God whom we have robbed. 
Much is now doing to rescue this day 
from profaneness, and to consecrate the 
Sabbath to its appropriate service, and 
we trust the days of New England's glo- 
ry will yet return. May the Lord hasten 
it in its time. 



MADE FOR MAN. 115 

CHAPTER VI. 
Miscellaneous Testimony for the Sabbath. 

*' Oh, dear, I am so very tired of the 
Sabbath I '' So said Willie, a playful 
little fellow, who was loDging for the 
Sabbath to be over, that he might re- 
turn to his play, 

'^ Who wauts to hear a story ? '^ said 
a kind friend who was present. 

*' I, sir," "And I," ''And 1," said the 
children, as they gathered nround him. 
Then he told them a parable. 

Our Savior, when he was on earth, 
often taught the people by parables. — 
The parable told to the little boys was 
of a kind man who had some very rich 
apples hanging upon a tree. A poor 
man was passing by the house of the 
owner, and he stopped to admire this 
beautiful apple-tree. He counted these 
golden pippins. There were just sev- 
en of them. The rich owner could 
afford to give them away, and it gave 
him so much pleasure to make this 



116 THE SABBATH 

poor man happy, that he called him 
and said, '' My friend, I will give you 
part of my fruit.'' So he held out his 
hand and received six of the apples. 
The owner had only kept one for him- 
self. 

Do you think the poor man was 
grateful for this kindness ? No, in- 
deed ! He wanted the seven pippins 
all for himself, and at last he made up 
his mind that he would watch his time, 
and go back and steal the other apple. 

'' Did he do that ? " said Willie, very 
sorry. '' He ought to have been 
ashamed of himself! I hope he got 
well punished for stealing that apple." 

*' How many days are there in the 
week, Willie ? " said his friend. 
^' Seven," said Willie, blushing deeply ; 
for now he began to understand the 
parable, and he felt very uneasy about 
his heart. Conscience began to whis- 
per to him, '' And should not a boy be 
ashamed of himself who is unwilling 
on the seventh day to lay aside his 
play ? Ought he not to be punished, 
if he will not remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy? " 

Picture Magazine. 



MADE FOR MAN. 117 

" I can't affobd it." 

'' Just come and give me a hand's 
turn at my garden, Jem, of a Sunday 
morning, will you ? '' said a working- 
man, with his pickaxe over his shoul- 
der. 

Jem took off his cap, and scratched 
his head in his own country way, and 
then said, 

^'No, master, I cant afford it." 

'' ! I do not want you to do the 
work for nothing. I • am willing to 
pay vou." 

^'I can't afford it/' 

''Why, man, I will put something 
in your pocket. I'm sure you're not 
too well off." 

" That's so ; I can't afford it." 

'' Can't afford it ? What do you 
mean? You don't understand me." 

" Yes, I do ; but hain't quick of 
speech, do you see. Howsomever, 
don't you snap me up, and I'll tell ye". 
I hain't too well off — that's as true a 
word as ever ye spoke. Times be 
mostly hard wi' me, but if I ain't well 
off, d'ye see, in this world, I've a 
hope, a blessed hope, my missus calls 
it, of being better off in the next 



118 THE SABBATH 

My Lord and Savior said these words 
with His own lips : '' I go to prepare 
a place for you, that where I am, 
there ye may be also." I learned that 
text twenty years ago, and IVe said 
it over hundreds of times, when things 
went wrong, and me and my wife 
wanted comfort.'' 

'' Well, Well ! What's all that got 
to do with your saying in answer to 
my offer, ' I can't afford it? '" 

"Why, no offence to you, but it's 
got all to do with it. I can't afford 
to lose my hope of a better land. If 
my Lord has gone to prepare a place 
for me, the best I can do is to ask Him 
to prepare me for the place. And, 
you see, Sunday is the only day that 
T can give all my thoughts to these 
holy things. I go to God's house and 
hear about heaven, and I seems to be 
waiting at one of the stations on the 
way there. No ! no ! Man's work 
for man's day ; but on God's day, I 
can't afford it." 

R(iader, poor, unlettered Jem had 
counted the cost of disobeying God's 
command by breaking the Sabbath. — 
** What shall it profit a man if he gain 



MADE FOR MAN. H^ 

the whole world and lose his own 
soul ? '^ The British Workman. 

SABBATH GEMS. 

* 1. *' If Sunday had not been ob- 
served during the last three centuries, 
we should have been a poorer and less 
civilized people than we are. '^ — Lord 
Macaulay. 

2. "' There is no religion without 
worship, and no worship without the 
Sabbath." — Count Montalembert. 

3. '' The Sabbath as apolitical insti- 
tution, is of inestimable value, inde- 
pendently of its claim to divine author- 
ity." — Adam /Smith. 

4. '^ Where there is no Christian 
Sabbath there is no Christian morality ; 
and without this, free institutions can 
not long be sustained. ^^— Justice Mc- 
Lean. 

5. '' The longer I live, the more 
highly do I esteem the Christian Sab- 
bath, and the more grateful do I feel 
toward those who impress its impor- 
tance on the community." — Daniel 
Webster, 

6. '' If the Sunday laws be neg- 



120 THE SABBATH 

lected or despised, the laws of person 
and property will soon share their 
fate, and be equally disregarded. '' — 
Attorney General Bates. 

I. '* Persons are able to do more 
work, and do it in a better manner, in 
six days than in seven." — Dr. J. G. 
Warren^ Frof, Med. Gol. Harvard 
University. 

8. " I have long been of the opin- 
ion that it is tor the interest of raih'oad 
and steamboat companies to suspend 
operations on the Sabbath." — S. Buthj 
Supt R. F. & P. Railway. 

9. "Laborers, mechanics, and man- 
agers will do more work and do it 
better in six days, than ia seven." — • 
J. P. Farley, Supt D. & Sioux City 
R.R. 

10. ''If we ask our men to break 
the Sabbath, it will not be long before 
they break the law by defrauding, etc.'^ 
—J. P. Farley, Supt. D. & S. G. 
Railway. 

II. '' I think men are more reliable 
and trustworthy on roads where the 
Sabbath is observed, then where the 
day of rest is ignored. " — E. G. Bar- 
ney^ Supt S. & Dalton R.R. 



MADE FOR MAN. 121 

12. '' I think men perform more 
work in six days, resting every 
seventh, than where thej work every 
day.'^ U. G. Barney^ Supt. Set, 
Borne & D. B. B. 

13. " Running Sunday trains is 
not profitable to the Company; and 
that it is a positive violation of Divine 
law, none can doubf — Ahram Mur- 
dock, Pres. M. & 0. B. B, 

14. '' Labor on the, canal, railroad 
and steamboat lines on the Sabbath, 
has a tendency to degrade the tone of 
morals." — J. Durand, Supt. Little 
Iliavii, G. & Z. B. B, 

15. ''Less censure can attach to 
Railroad men who are compelled to 
labor on the Sabbath for their daily 
bread than to owners and employers 
who require their service. — J. Durandy 
Supt. Z. M. O. & Z. B. B. 

* 16. '' We ask that the public works 
shall scrupulously observe the Sunday; 
the princes of industry, thought, and 
eloquence act in one concert, and God 
will have his day, and the people like- 
wise. — Pere Hijacinthe. 

It. Bismarck gave peasantry on 
his estates right to do their harvesting 



122 THE SABBATH 

before doing bis, rather than have 
them labor on the Sabbath. Result : 
His work was better done than before. 

18. Constantine prohibited sports, 
theatrical amusements a nd labor on 
the Sabbath. This was the Roman 
SabBxYth Law of the earlv ages of 
the Church. 

19. Macaulay has shown by careful 
historic investigation that Sabbath 
laws result in laborers getting the same 
wages for six days work as for seven. 

20. Statistics of manufacturing dis- 
tricts prove employers receive greater 
profit from the labor of employees who 
rest on the Sabbath. 

21. Statistics show that the British 
Government obtained more and better 
work from its manufacturing shops 
when Sunday labor was stopped. — 
Wilberforce. 

22. In the mechanical shops of the 
United States and also of the French 
Government, Sunday labor has been 
found so unprofitable as to be aban- 
doned. 

23. Two thousand British work- 
men were worked every dnj for years; 
and paid double wages for Sabbaths. 



MADE FOR MAN. 123 

The same men were then rested on 
the Sabbath, and did more work than 
before. 

24. All opposition to Sabbath ob- 
servance, tends to increase days of 
toil, without increasing their profits; 
and to blight mental and spiritual im- 
provment, here and hereafter. 

25. With an open Bible, and a strict 
observance of the Sabbath, Popery 
can not exist. 

26. Hogarth, in one of his series 
of pictures of '^ Industry and Idle- 
ness," represents the idle apprentice 
whose course ends at the gallows, as 
gambling on Sunday, on a tomb-stone 
during Divine service. 

27. The religious observance of the 
Sabbath 'is the hope of the working 
classes, not only because it secures them 
a day of physical rest ; but promotes 
their mental growth. 

28. Timothy Titcomb, (J. G. Hol- 
land, M, D.,) said in his letters to a 
Mechanic : ''There is something in the 
pursuits of men who follow handicraft, 
rendering some intellectual feeding on 
Sunday peculiarly necessary." 

29. The laws of nearly every State, 



124 THE SiVBBATH 

except Louisiana (owing to its French 
Roman Catholic origin ), recognize our 
National Sentiment, and protect the 
Christian Sabbath against abuse and 
desecration. 

30. The Constitution of the United 
States recognizes the Christian Sabbath 
by exempting it from the day the 
President is to sign bills passed bj 
Congress. 

'•31. Christ sharpened and defined 
the sixth commandment by pronounc- 
ing hatred in the heart, murder ; the 
sev^cnth in Mat. v. 28 ; and the fourth 
by making the Sabbath a day of reli- 
gious devotion and culture.'- 

" 32. ' Ye cannot serve God and 
Mammon,' is severely applicable to 
myself and other professing Christians 
if we practice or allow secular reading, 
writiag and conversation on the Sab- 
bath." 

^' 33. ^ The discipline and character 
of the national forces should not suffer, 
nor the cause they defend be imperiled, 
by the profanation of the day or name 
of the Most High.' — Abraham Lin- 
coln.''^ 

'' 34. The Superintendent of the R. 



MADE FOR MAN. 125 

F. & Potomac R. R. says of Sabbath 
desecration : * It demoralizes the men, 
and makes them reckless, and so is the 
cause of many accidents.'' 

'' 35. Blackstone wrote : * A cor- 
ruption of morals usually follows a 
profanation of the Sabbath." 

36. *' Whatever hindereth the obser- 
vance and sanctity of the Sabbath, is 
against the Scriptures."- — Sir Edmund 
Coke. 

St. '' Give the world half of Sunday 
and you will find religion has no strong 
hold of the other." — Sir Walter Scott. 

38. ''The more faithfully I apply 
myself to the duties of the Lord's day, 
the more happy and successful is my 
business during the week. " — Sir Mat- 
theio Hale. 

30. The Sabbath; ''God is Lord 
of our time, and lends it to us, and it 
is right we should consecrate this part 
of that time to Him." — Sir Matthew 
Hale. 

40. In a speech in the British Par- 
liament, Rt. Hon. Joseph Napier said 
he "regar4ed the Sabbath as a birth- 
right, and he warned the House and 
the country not to part with it." 



126 THE SABBATH 

41. '' In a speech in the British Par- 
liament, Rt. Hon, Joseph Napier 
referred to the commercial success of 
England and the U. S. as largely 
attributable to their Sabbath obser- 
vance. 

42. The keeping one day in seven 
holy, is of admirable service to the 
state, considered merely as a civil 
institution. — Blackstone. 

43. ''Profanation of the Lord's 
Day is an offence against God and 
religion." — Blackstone. 

44. The Sabbath ; Dr. Farre, of 
London, testified before a Parliamentary 
Committee : '' That amusements on 
that day are injurious to mankind, 
forcing circulation which needs repose.'^ 

45. '' Sunday as a day of relaxation 
to drink (in the tea gardens) is a more 
injurious abuse to the body than that 
of continued labor." 

Testimony of Dr. Ferre, before com- 
mittee of Parliament, 

46. '' A Sunday given to the soul, is 
the best of all means of refreshment to 
the mere intellect." — Isaac Taylor. 

4*7. " We never met a Christian 
friend who bore on his character everv 



3IADE FOR MAN. 137 

other evidence of the spirit's operation, 
who did not 'remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy.' " — Dr. Chalmers. 

48. *' The very Ufe of religion doth 
much depend upon the solemn observ- 
ance of the Sabbath.''— J rc/i6zs/iop 
Leighton, 

49. The Sabbath : '' The laws of the 
land made for its account ought to be 
as strictly enforced as the laws for the 
protection of person and property. " — 
Attorney Gen^l Bates. 

60. The Sabbath ''Imprints on the 
minds of the people, that sense of their 
duty to God, so necessary to make 
them good citizens." — Blachstone. 

51. The Sabbath '' Humanizes the 
manners of the lower classes; v/hich 
would otherwise degenerate into sordid 
ferocity and savage selfishness of 
spiri t." — Blackstone. 

62. Rev. 0. S. Powell, the pioneer 
of specific organized Sabbath work in 
America, used to say : " What the 
keystone is to the arch, the Sabbath is 
to the Christian religion." 

53. An eminent Frenchman said our 
*' American Sabbath " was our one 
truly national characteristic ; and he 



128 THE SABBATH 

hoped ^' it would never lose its hold 
on our affeciions and patriotism." 

54. "When revolutionary France,- 
in its frenzy of atheism, abolished the 
Christian Sabbath, it had to establish 
a periodic rest-day in its stead, and 
to protect its observance by law.'' 

55. " The State regulales the length 
of a working day, and the age at which 
children may be employed iti factories; 
it should also secure to its citizens 
the rest of the Sabbath. — Atterhary, 

56. ''The price of the libei^ty of 
Sabbath, as of all our other liberties, 
is eternal vigilance,''^ — Atterbury. 

57. Dear brothers from otj^er lands 
(thrice welcome), please remember the 
central idea of our republic is, major- 
ity rule ; and that a majority of us 
wish quiet on the Sabbath.'' — Mat. viL 
12. 

58. QuAEREL with the facts as you 
may, you must go to church on Sunday, 
and hear the preachiug, or be an intel- 
ligent starveling." — Timothy Titcomb. 

59. ''Your brain is as certain to 
degenerate under the habit of staying 
at home from church, as a plant is to 
grow pale when hidden away from the 



MADE FOR MAN. 129 

sun." — Letters to a Mechanic^ J. G. 
Holland, M. D. 

60. The foundation of the civil law, 
and individual religious practice, is the 
Decalogue. By what right do men 
*' liberalize'' the 4th commandment, 
and not the 6th, or the others ? 

61. Man must rest from labor at 
least one day in seven. Without it, 
the constitution is undermined and the 
foundation of disease is the result.-^ 
Charles Cullis, M. i>." 

62. '' Apoplexy and paralysis, now 
so frequent among the great men in 
the public and business world, result 
in many cases from lack of quiet 
Sabbath rest for body and brain." 

63. That Sunday work on Daily 
Newspapers is not necessary, is proved 
by the great tinancial success of a 
leading commercial paper in New 
York City, on which no Sunday labor 
whatever has been done, for more 
than a quarter of a century." 

64. Some years since an Omnibus 
Company in New York City stopped 
doing business on the Sabbath, and 
lost five horses in the first eleven 
months thereafter. In the first preced- 



130 THE SABBATH 

ing eleven months they lost fifty-five 
horses. 

65. Daring the last twelve years, 
a Banking House in the United States, 
which is a rigid Sabbath-keeping es- 
tablishment, has lost lessthaa $100, by 
the mails, though it has sometimes 
had millions of dollars in transitu per 
day for months together." 

U. S. Senator Buckingham says : — • 
*'I have learned by experience that a 
proper observance of the Sabbath 
turns my mind so completely from 
business, that I engage in it on Mon- 
day with such renewed strength and 
vigor that I accomplish much more 
than I could without having rested." 

Macaulay on the Sabbath. 

*'0f course I do not mean that a 
man will not produce more in a week 
by working seven days than by work- 
ing six days. But I very much doubt 
whether, at the end of a year, he will 
geuerally have produced more by 
working seven days a week than by 
working six days a week ; and I 
firmly believe that at the end of twenty 
years he will have produced less by 



MADE FOR MAN. 131 

working seven days a week than by 
working six days a week. The nat- 
ural difference between Campania and 
Spitzbergen is trifling, when compared 
with the difference between a country 
inhabited by men sunk in bodily and 
mental decrepitude. Therefore it is 
that we are not poorer, but richer, 
because we have, through many ages, 
rested from our labor one day in seven. 
That day is not lost. While industry 
is suspended, while the plow lies in 
the furrow, while the exchange is 
silent, while no smoke ascends from 
the factory, a process is going on 
quite as important to the nation as 
any process which is performed on 
more busy days. Man, the machine 
of machines, the machine compared 
with which all the contrivances of the 
Watts and Arkwrights are worthless, 
is repairing and winding up, so that 
he returns to his labors on the Monday 
with clearer intellect, with livelier 
spirits, with renewed corporeal vigor.'' 
The Sabbath. — I think, with a 
shudder, sometimes, what life would 
be without the. Sabbath — if day after 
. day the great wheel of the world 



132 THE SABBATH 

went round with its ceaseless clatter, 
never a rest in motion, never a pause 
in sound. I speak of the Sabbath 
only in its original meaning, as a word 
that signifies *' rest/^ And in this 
very sense it is bj most men, and 
ought to be by all, esteemed as the 
very greatest of all the blessings which 
the Almighty Benevolence has bestow- 
ed upon man. The worst Sabbath- 
breaker of all is the ingrate who is not 
thankful when the Sabbath comes 
round. He may go to church three 
times a day, and be austere in all out- 
ward observances, but he breaks the 
Sabbath in his heart if he rojoices 
when it is over. He who thoroughly 
enjoys his day of rest, lives from 
morning to night in a state of thank- 
fulness to the Almighty ; the incense 
of praise is continually rising from his 
heart. I do not envy the man who 
does not hail the advent of the Sab- 
bath, and rejoice in the rest which it 
vouchsafes. — Gorahill Magazine. 



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